


Illicit Fate

by celestialenigma



Series: Omega-Verse [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, AmeCan, Angst, Drama, FrUK, Incest, M/M, Mpreg, Omega Verse, Sibling Incest, True Mates, but also sort of, fated mates, happy ending eventually, ukfr - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-04-26 04:26:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4990165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialenigma/pseuds/celestialenigma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>UNFINISHED (probably forever) Twins brothers, one of them an alpha, the other an omega. The story of their illicit love ultimately starts in a time that doesn't accept what fate had given to them. Alfred F. Jones is the alpha twin and is a retired police officer. With nothing else to do in his spare time, he begins to write a tale of the deep love that he shares with his beloved brother Mattie.-Omegaverse AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is an AU. In this AU Canada and America are blood related siblings. That means that this story contains outright incest (but no mpreg between them, don't worry). If this squicks you out, you may want to avoid this story. K? K! This is also written in both THIRD and FIRST person, which will make sense when you read this. You will eventually get Mattie's POV but that won't be for a bit.
> 
> This story can be read separately from 'Fate is Never Wrong', but does have very minor tie-ins (since Dr.Williams was a minor character in it). 
> 
> I have three chapters written but this will be several chapters long at the very least. So I'll post one chapter a week. I may be a bit slow around the end of October as I have a few events I'm also writing/drawing in for Hallowe'en (just a forewarning). I wanted to get this up now to help me get my butt in gear and writing faster. O_@ I've been so slow recently but I really want to write this out because I love these two guys soooo much.

**Chapter One**

 

~==Present Day==~

 

With a plastic container in hand, Alfred F. Jones hummed while he walked towards a light brown door that would take him downstairs to the first floor, which is where he lived. From behind him, a jingle indicated the door to the outside was opening. Alfred turned to take a look at who was there, so bright and early, before the secretary even got in.

 

It was a little boy and his mother. The boy was in cute overalls that were covered in sewn on patches of cats. He smelled like an omega. Alfred smiled wide and walked slowly over to them. These must be new patient's of Mattie's, since he'd never seen them before, and he didn't want to scare the poor little boy with all of his alpha pheromones by moving too fast. Though it probably wouldn't be too bad, since his alpha pheromones had dimmed with growing so painfully close to being elderly.

 

“Hi,” said Alfred, waving and taking the lid off of his plastic container, displaying the chocolate cookies within, “I'm Dr. William's mate. These are freshly baked, would you like one?”

 

The boy, who had to be no older than five, timidly looked up at his mother, blond curls falling in front of his eyes. It reminded Alfred of Mattie when he was that age. His mother nodded and the boy reached out and took a cookie, smiling as he took the first bite.

 

The lady thanked him and Alfred went back to the door that would take him downstairs. He could already smell the lingering scent of freshly baked cookies and cupcakes. It was the one thing that helped keep Alfred sane these days.

 

And the one thing that he was pretty good at doing.

 

As he got to the bottom of the stairs he looked over on the wall to the misshapen picture frame that held a photo of he and Mattie from their vacation a few years previous, both of their silver heads of hair shining under the tropical sun. Alfred, as it turned out, wasn't very good at woodworking.

 

Not that it had stopped him from trying all sorts of projects, like building bird houses (which trapped more poor animals than it fed), making chairs (that nearly crippled Mattie when they collapsed under him) and trying to put up all sorts of shelves (which couldn't hold anything that was able to roll).

 

He passed by a lumpy red, white and blue candle that looked more like a grotesque blob (according to Mattie) than an actual pillar candle. It was from his candle making phase.

 

That was when he saw the basket full of balls of yarn that were barely touched, the stack of half made scrap-books and their supplies and the falling apart model boats he'd tried to put together. Finally, there was what Mattie had deemed, 'the last straw'. Right in the middle of the living room, was a loom. It was a pretty neat loom, if Alfred said so himself.

 

Mattie had already put up an ad to sell it on the internet.

 

Alfred, meanwhile, was bored. He kept trying all of these things to keep himself occupied but to no avail. There were only so many batches of cookies that he could bake while 'watching his cholesterol'.

 

Retirement as awful. The alpha liked to work. He lived to provide for his mate.

 

But his doctor, not Mattie, even though that would have been pretty nice, had told Alfred that he could not longer work as a police officer. It was too stressful on his health at his age.

 

So, at aged sixty-three, Alfred had retired from the force. In his opinion, he probably could have worked for another decade, at least. Mattie, the worry-wart, said that the money he made as a physician was more than enough to live off of. Especially since he was having a paper published on the brain chemistry that went behind the phenomenon of fated mates.

 

Alfred didn't understand much of Mattie's research, much like he didn't understand much about medical science in general. All he knew was that he needed something to do or he was going to go crazy, despite how proud he was of his mate.

 

That was when he found himself on the computer. On a whim, he brought up a word processing program and began to type, even though he had no idea what to expect or even what he was going to write about.

 

~==The Past-Alfred's Writing==~

 

I suppose that my first memory would be of when I was a small child. At the time I was probably no more than four years old. Despite the general haze of very early childhood, I can remember everything about that day so clearly.

 

It's important, I feel, to mention something about myself. I'm a twin. I was born first by about twenty minutes. Matthew is my twin brother. We aren't identical, but we do look awfully similar anyway. Enough that our parents would sometimes mistake my brother for me, at least until they smelled his scent, which is that of an omega. I'm an alpha.

 

Anyway. The day of my first memory, it was raining so hard that each raindrop might as well of been a stream from a faucet. Thunder was booming closer and closer and the clouds had darkened the sky so much that the flashes from the lightning would light up the room. Every now and then I would look through the window and watch the storm. It was really interesting and I remember thinking that it was the first time I'd really taken a good look at the turbulent weather.

 

It was at one point that I called back behind myself, “Hey Mattie! Storm!”

 

When I didn't get an answer, even after straining my ears to try to hear my brother's whispers, I looked back.

 

Sure enough, the play room was empty, save for the train set strewn about on the blue rug.

 

That was really weird. Mattie never went that far away from me. We were inseparable.

 

I looked behind the chairs, under the rug and even in the toy box.

 

No Mattie.

 

I then checked the rest of the parts of the house that I could think of my twin being. He couldn't have gone that far. However with each new room that I had gone into without finding my brother, I had begun to worry. Fear crept up on me and tears brimmed in my eyes. I was supposed to protect my sibling and I failed. He was gone. Maybe forever.

 

Just as I sniffled, my nose runny, I peeked into the laundry room. I went and looked in the closet of that room.

 

That was when I saw Mattie.

 

He had been curled up under a pile of clothes that he'd pulled out of a basket. His head was poking out and he was crying, clutching his white stuffed bear.

 

I ran to him and I smoothed my hands over his soft blond curls. Once he buried his head in my t-shirt, he cried in earnest.

 

Between sobs, he said, “I sawed a monster but you were too close to the window and the scary lightning and I couldn't get to you.”

 

“What kind of monster was it?” I asked because I had a need to know.

 

How else could I fight an evil creature if I didn't know what I was up against?

 

Matthew only shrugged to that and had proceeded to draw me closer and further into his burrow of clothes. Burrowing and subconsciously protecting me in a way similar to how I wanted to protect him.

 

“A big and dark and scary one. In the shadows,” said Mattie, mumbling, “I think it had fangs.”

 

I shivered. That had sounded pretty scary. Maybe kind of like a ghost. It didn't matter though, I'd protect Mattie either way, almost like an instinctual urge. It was weird but I hadn't given it very much more thought than that. I just cuddled closer to my brother and shivered but put myself closer to the entrance to the closet than Mattie was.

 

That monster would have to go through me first.

 

It wasn't until much later that our parents found us, my mother looming over us. Mattie had long since fallen asleep but I was forcing myself awake by pinching my skin. If I fell asleep the monster would eat us both. I was so tired though.

 

I had been glad for my mother to relieve me of my protection duty. She was our alpha and I knew that I could trust her to keep us safe.

 

#

 

My next memory took place not too long after that. We were at our house, which was was the central point between the houses of our two other friends. They were our age, which was to say that we weren't quite yet in school. That was still at year away at that point.

 

I was in the kitchen with Francis, vaguely overhearing our omega parents chatting in the sitting room over tea and biscuits. He and I were gathering supplies such as fruit and cookies as well as cups of water.

 

Once we had our haul of goodies, he lugged them to the bedroom. It was there that Mattie and our friend Arthur were playing 'heat'.

 

Of course, we were still so young that we didn't understand exactly what went into having a heat. We simply thought that you went into a nest, usually in a closet or a corner. From there you would feed your mate yummy foods while they made weird noises and screamed, “Yes”, and, “Oh God” a lot.

 

I thought that there must be a whole ton of praying involved. I didn't know and my parents wouldn't tell me when I asked.

 

That was all well and good. Francis and I set our food down outside of the 'nest' that the two omega boys had constructed. I grabbed a few items and then made my way over to Mattie.

 

“What are you doing? Mattie is your brother,” said Francis, hands on his hips and looking over at Arthur with disdain.

 

Those two hadn't ever fully gotten along. They fought quite a bit and I thought that maybe that was why they didn't want to pretend to be mates. I knew that if I said that, though, they would break out into another fight, this time with me.

 

So I said, “Why can't I?”

 

Arthur added in his point of view, “Because it's weird.”

 

“Yes. So give your food to Arthur and I'll give mine to Mattie,” said Francis.

 

I stuck out my lower lip and tried to pout, but Mattie quietly said, “It's okay. Just do that, I don't mind.”

 

To say that I wasn't happy was an understatement. However I played the game the way everybody else wanted me to. I gave my food to Arthur.

 

It wasn't so bad really, since Arthur was a close friend. It just felt weird.

 

#

 

At school we were always together. The four of us that is. We all went to the same school and because the town we lived in was small, we were all in the same class. I was thrilled to be in the same class as my twin and my two best friends.

 

Despite the fact that he was an omega, Arthur was strong as nails and didn't let anybody give him any trouble. So add in me and Francis and nobody bothered us. Mattie may be quiet, but he wasn't a pushover either.

 

There had been one time that Mattie had been alone. I don't remember what year we were in other than that we were young. So maybe second grade?

 

Anyway, I guess some bullies started trying to pick on Mattie to try to break the one that they thought was the weak link in our little 'family'. When I finally found Mattie and saw him from across the football field, I saw him just start in on the bullies.

 

Mattie didn't even make a fist or lay a finger on the other boys and girl. He didn't have to. He cut them to the bone with insults scathing enough to burn.

 

The bullies ran away with tears in their eyes, Mattie paling significantly as if he only then realized what he'd done. He was whispering apologies that the bullies were, by then, too far away to hear.

 

“What's goin' on Mattie?” I asked, running up to stand beside my twin, quickly followed by Arthur and Francis.

 

“Nothing,” said Mattie, slouching and staring at the ground, which was the classic sign of him lying.

 

Arthur puffed out his chest and placed his hands on his hips. He said, “It couldn't be nothing. You seemed pretty angry.”

 

Sighing, Mattie looked up and into my eyes. He finally mumbled, “They were saying mean things about you three.”

 

“Not you?” chimed Francis, on the other side of Matthew that Arthur was not on.

 

Mattie shook his head.

 

Before I could really think of anything to say to those words that made me feel all happy inside, Francis had flung his arms around Matthew and was hugging him tight. He kept calling him a 'sweet friend'.

 

The blush that came over Mattie's face made me feel all uncomfortable and upset. I didn't understand it then, which was generally the case when it came to my feelings.

 

#

 

Really, me and Mattie had a pretty normal childhood, especially for the times we grew up. It was the late fifties that we were children. That meant that when we weren't in school, or at the table eating a meal, we were running around outside. It didn't matter if it were raining or freezing cold. We'd dress for the weather and go back outside to play with our friends.

 

We'd go into the woods that ran along the entire one side of our town. In there we'd build forts out of sticks and fallen tree branches. We'd hop into the creek and get soaking wet. Well Arthur and I would. Mattie and Francis always preferred to hang back rather than get soaked.

 

I suppose the fact that Arthur and I would be freezing cold after our forays into the creek would be why. That and leeches.

 

I hated those things. They creeped me out. Not that I'd ever let that show. I'd just get Mattie to pick them off of me.

 

Arthur would pick his own off and toss them at Francis who would run away screaming despite the fact that Alphas were supposed to be tough. I was an alpha and I didn't blame him one bit.

 

Leeches were gross.

 

But the creek was still too fun to stay out of.

 

The four of us would stay outside until the sun had set and the bugs buzzed and sang their songs around us.

 

Mattie and I would say goodbye to our two friends and go home. We'd be forced into the bath by our father who was the one who did most of the childcare tasks, seeing as how he was an omega.

 

Not that it was a good thing, but everything was more black and white back then. Omegas, male or female, were expected to take care of the house and the children. Alphas were expected to get a job.

 

I guess that I understood that in a way. However I never really cared too much. I just liked to play and be with Mattie. To see Mattie's wide smile when I'd done something to really make him happy.

 

Like that time that I'd saved up all of my money and bought him some expensive candy. I hadn't even eaten any of them. Okay maybe I ate one on my way back home, but that made me a really great brother. I could have eaten every one of those yummy maple candies but I didn't. I saved almost all of them for Mattie. I mean, I probably only ate two or three.

 

There was also that time when he and I were a bit older, maybe nine or so, that Mattie got really sick. I waited on him hand and foot. I refused to go to school and let my dad take care of Mattie. My brother's eyes were all weepy and blurred, so he couldn't read. That really upset Mattie.

 

By then, Mattie was reading at a high school level or something like that, I don't remember. He would have been sent to a school for the super smart, but it was so far away and he and I didn't want to be that far apart. So Mattie would read extra smart things when he wasn't in regular school.

 

Then, however, he couldn't see the words. So I read to him for nearly a week. That was a gift in and of itself. Those books were hard and full of complicated words like:  oxygenated, hemoglobin, bacteriophage and pneumococcus.

 

Back then I didn't understand how he could find that kind of stuff fun to read or listen to. I still don't if I'm going to be completely honest. But he found it fun, still does. So that was enough for me.

 

It was still hard though. I nearly fell asleep reading them to him.

 

That cold eventually went away and Mattie was as good as new.

 

#

 

Everything was good in our lives. Even as we approached our teenage years.

 

I always had omegas hanging around with me. One or two of them would even ask me out when I was in the ninth grade. I always turned them down, gently of course, and sent them on their way.

 

I was much too wrapped up in sports, tinkering with whatever I could get my hands on and spending as much time with Mattie as I could manage.

 

Spending time with Mattie became harder as time wore on and we got busier at school. I more so with friends. The fact that our parents thought that the two of us sharing a room while we were teenagers was weird.

 

So our alpha put her foot down and moved us into separate rooms when we were almost sixteen.

 

“Why do you need to do this?”, I had begged, hands fisted beside my hips as Matthew's stuff was placed in the guest room.

 

Our Mother gave me a thin smile and with the strained voice of somebody who had already explained this several times, said, “Because you two need privacy now. Alphas and omegas need their own spaces. And besides, you are nearly sixteen year old boys and siblings.”

 

I failed to see how any of that mattered. It still didn't make sense no matter how she tried to explain herself. Just as my upper lip rose in the mockery of a snarl, Mother gave me a full out growl. She cowed me into submission with just a single look and glow of her eyes.

 

I heard Mattie whimper. A display of domination from an alpha that wasn't directed at a specific person or group of people could only make an omega nervous if it was their alpha. Until we were eighteen, mother was our alpha. Her word was law, despite how much my inner alpha longed to rebel.

 

I satisfied myself with an arm around my twin and a continued look of contempt towards the woman who was separating me away from my Mattie.

 

That night, so silent that I didn't hear him until he had slipped under my blanket, Mattie came to spend the night with me. He stayed on his own side, of course, sleeping as we had since for as long as we could remember.

 

~==Present==~

 

Alfred yawned an pushed himself back from the computer desk. He grinned at the luminous rectangle before him, which was full of his typed up work of genius.

 

If he had of known how great he was at writing, he would have been doing it years ago. Alfred just knew that what he was typing up was a work worthy of praise. It would probably go on the New York Times bestseller's list.

 

Now he just had to finish it.

 

The first chapter was done at least. So he decided to go back upstairs with more of his cookies and see if anybody wanted some.

 

So, after stretching out his back and muscles from sitting for so long, Alfred snatched up the plastic container. He opened it and stuffed one into his mouth. Matthew wasn't around to lecture after all.

 

Just before he opened the door after having scaled the stairs, he swallowed the last bite of his second cookie and went inside of Mattie's practice.

 

There was nobody in the waiting room. Alfred looked at the clock and saw that Matthew would probably be with his last patient of the day. Over at the reception desk was Emily, a beta. She was the secretary who came in around four times a week. Sometimes three if she was busy at home. Matthew was pretty good at holding his own behind the desk and Alfred helped him sometimes as well.

 

Alfred thrust the container of cookies towards her and said, “Have one. They're good.”

 

Emily looked up, her green eyes shining with amusement. She brushed a curly strand of blonde hair off of her face and behind an ear before she said, “I'm trying to eat healthy. You know that.”

 

Waving a hand, Alfred said, “Nonsense. You look great just the way you are.”

 

Heaving a sigh, Emily grabbed a single cookie and placed it on a tissue beside her. She said, “Happy?”

 

“So long as I see you eat it before I go back downstairs. Also, you know that I'm always willing to cook for you if you want to bring home a casserole or two.”

 

She smiled, “Maybe when I get closer to my due date.”

 

Alfred looked over the desk and saw her rounding belly.

 

“How are the other two?”

 

She chuckled, “Raising hell of course. The oldest is about to graduate.”

 

“Oh yeah?”

 

Emily nodded, “I just hope that my parents will be able to make the graduation.”

 

Alfred grabbed a cookie and pointedly ignored the look he got for it. Damn, Mattie must have told her about his diet. He got a couple of quick bites in before it was snatched from his hand and deposited into the garbage can.

 

Emily simply gave him a look but didn't comment any further.

 

Alfred sighed and stared forlornly at the ruined garbage cookie and then said, “I hope they'll be able to make it as well. They're somewhere tropical right now though, aren't they.”

 

She nodded, “Cuba.”

 

Alfred cringed. He'd met an alpha there one time when he and Mattie were younger. The guy had hit on Mattie. So Alfred was no longer a fan of the country, as nice as it had been there.

 

Just as he was about to open his mouth, Mattie popped by, silver hair longer than normal and so was tied back out of his face. His gorgeous violet eyes shimmered with mirth as he kissed Alfred on the cheek and said, looking at Emily, “Every time he hears the name of that country he sulks. Miguel, who is still my friend by the way, had only asked me out for ice cream.”

 

“I don't care. I still don't trust him,” said Alfred aware of his pouting and not bothering to do anything about it.

 

Mattie just rolled his eyes and said, “Do you think you can lock up, Emily?”

 

The secretary nodded and made a shooing motion, “Absolutely. You two go rest for the night.”

 

Alfred went down the stairs first after they bid farewell to Emily. He made his eyes all shiny and pathetic looking and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He didn't let Matthew pass, thereby forcing his twin to look at him.

 

“Can we make burgers tonight?” pouted Alfred.

 

“You know what Dr. Mack told you. You need to cut down on fatty foods. I know for a fact that you've eaten way too many cookies today,” said Matthew.

 

Jaw dropped, Alfred said, “How did you know?”

 

“You just told me,” said Matthew, gently nudging the alpha to the side and went into their home. Matthew locked the door behind them once Alfred was also in, placing his keys into a neon orange wooden shape that was suppose to look like a sun made to be a bowl.

 

Another masterpiece by Alfred. He was actually rather proud of it.

 

“You're so sneaky Matt,” said Alfred, following his omega into the kitchen where he saw Mattie pulling out lettuce.

 

He immediately rebelled, “Not salad Mattie. Please not salad.”

 

“If you want, you can barbecue that chicken in the fridge,” said Matthew.

 

“You had me at B-B-Q,” said Alfred, saying each letter as if it were it's own word.

 

He grabbed the pack of meat and a big bottle of sauce. As he passed Mattie, he kissed the blond man's cheek.

 

Even if he tried to keep him healthy by feeding him big bowls of gross green things, Alfred knew Mattie loved him. Alfred most definitely returned the sentiment.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I have anything to say here in these author's notes but I really feel like I'm forgetting something. It's driving me crazy! @_@ Oh well. I'll remember what I wanted to type here too late I guess. LOL. Time to go back to writing chapter 4 and then writing at least three other short stories for various Tumblr Hetalia Hallowe'en things.
> 
> Enjoy this.

Chapter Two

 

The soothing crackle of a record set the mood, filling the air with soft jazz. There weren't many times when Alfred felt his age, but when he heard the music of the youth today, he couldn't help but cringe. Alfred had always hoped to be the cool and hip kind of old guy that wouldn't say things such as, "That's not music, that's just noise."

However if he ever put the radio on when he drove, he'd quickly find himself changing it to the golden oldies station. It made him seem old, but at least his eardrums didn't feel as if they were bleeding

Besides, what was more relaxing than jazz? Especially when he was already feeling rather bad, being plagued by indigestion from the night before. 

As soon as he'd woken up with painful heartburn, he'd wanted to tell Mattie that it was because of the salad he'd forced him to eat that night. However once he got into the kitchen, he smelled eggs and bacon, real bacon, not that fake turkey crap that Mattie had insisted on giving a shot. 

Mattie had only allowed Alfred two slices, but that was enough to make the alpha forget about his indigestion.

It must have gone away, probably due to the miracle that is pork, but left a lingering crappy feeling.

Since Alfred didn't have much else to do, he set about writing once more.

~==Past-Alfred Writing==~

I was in the tenth grade when my mother brought it up.

Mattie and I were sitting at the table, our mother reading a newspaper, our father washing dishes at the stove. Dad had made a huge stack of fluffy golden pancakes to send us off for the day. There was a bottle of sweet amber hued maple syrup, Mattie's favourite flavour. Personally I preferred to slather my pancakes with some of our grandmother's strawberry preserves. Grandma and our father would set into the kitchen and cook up huge batches every summer when the strawberries were at their peak. Nothing tasted as good to me. 

I had just put a large bite into my mouth, savouring the buttery sweet jammy goodness when I heard my mother talk.

"I was thinking Alfred, why don't you ask that Arthur boy to the movies some time?" said our mother who hadn't raised her eyes to me.

She continued to read her paper. 

Beside me, Matt stopped shovelling food into his mouth, putting his fork down on his plate with a light clink of metal against china. I didn't though. Of course that had been because I hadn't really understood what my mother was getting at. 

"Ma, I go to the movies with him all the time," I said between bites. 

I would have spoken with my mouth full but that would have garnered me a smack and there was no way I wanted that. 

Mother finally lowered the grey pages of her reading material, the paper crinkling, " I simply thought that since you and Arthur are such good friends, perhaps you are fated mates. You should get to know each other one on one some time. That way, when you two are eighteen and gain your mating scents, you will already be in a relationship.”

She levelled me with a firm glare of her blue eyes that let me know that she expected me to follow through with her suggestion. I shrugged. 

It wasn't as if you could force fate or anything. Grown-ups always seemed to want to try I supposed.

Glancing over to Mattie she said, "Perhaps it would give that Francis boy a chance to be alone with you and court you better."

I gritted my teeth at that and gulped down big swallows of my orange juice. 

Once Mattie and I got out backpacks and went into driveway and sat on the lawn. Since we were out of earshot of our mother, I said, "I really don't wanna go steady with anybody. I don't really care for all the stuff. Y'know?"

I patted my twin on the back and stared up at the fluffy white clouds floating by. Out of the corner of my eye I didn't miss the look of relief on Mattie's face. 

He said, "Neither do I."

"I don't think I ever want a mate," I confided.

He smiled wide, "Same."

I wrapped my arms around my brother and cheered, "Whoever said that twins aren't alike had no idea what they were talking about."

Our conversation didn't get that chance to go much further because we saw Arthur and Francis walking down the sidewalk towards up, bickering as boisterously as usual. They were calling each other names and Arthur had threatened to shove Francis in front of the next car that passed them.

Both Mattie and I exchanged glances and went to break up the squabbling duo.

#

That was all well and good of course, until the next year. Grade eleven.

When I had told Mattie that I didn't care about stuff like dating, I meant it. I really hadn't thought about being with anybody or even really being sexual. I masturbated, sure, but even that was infrequent.

There had been so many more things that I was interested in then omegas. Sports and cars took up a good portion of my focus. Most of my youthful energy went towards those things, so I didn't have much stamina left to think about sex.

So when the guys on the football team asked me if I was planning to ask Arthur to go steady, I felt like I was floundering. I was in over my head and didn't know what to say other than the truth.

"No. Why would I? I'm waiting until I'm eighteen so that I can find my fated mate," I had told them, doing some pre-practice stretches. 

Of course, the guys laughed. They made it seem like I was crazy for not wanting to date somebody. They asked me if I planned to hang off of my omega twin forever. They all had people they were at least going after. None of them were so very close to their siblings.

All throughout the practice they would poke at me, teasing me and bugging me. It was annoying and I hadn't ever had the greatest patience. As I ran over the dirt path that surrounded the football field I found myself wondering if dating Arthur wouldn't be so bad. 

My mother had been constant in asking whether I considered her advice of asking out Arthur. Sometimes she would outright demand that I ask him out. It annoyed me greatly and riled my temper. As an alpha, I hadn't been keen on being ordered around, at least by another person whose personality was also dominant. However I had loved my mother regardless and wanted to make her happy.

I started to think that if asking Arthur out would make the guys get off my back as well, than maybe it wouldn't be so bad. 

So after practice, hair wet from my shower and a towel draped around my neck and my pack slung over my shoulder, I walked out to where I usually met Mattie, Francis and Arthur. 

Matthew and Arthur were chatting about something while Francis primped and preened at himself in the small mirror he usually kept on him at all times. I remember rolling my eyes and staring at Arthur for once instead of my twin, who was usually the recipient of most of my attention.

Arthur wasn't bad looking. Sure, he usually had a frown on his face and was often grumbling about something or another. However he had nice looking green eyes and a body that was pretty cute. He was also fun to hang out with so long as you knew not to take his insults and harsh attitude too seriously.

Both omegas must have seen me at the same time because they turned as one and greeted me. Arthur waved kindly. It was Mattie though whose smile lit up the rather overcast and grey day. His violet eyes sparkled with joy upon seeing me.

"Hi Al," said Matthew, "Ready to go home?"

I swallowed heavily but I knew that what I was going to do was a good thing. There was nothing wrong with asking out a dear friend. I had no idea at the time, why I had the vague feeling that somehow I was betraying Mattie. Maybe it was because we'd both said that we'd never want a mate?

Really though, I thought, we would have found our fated mates eventually. So why did it matter so much? Mattie was just my twin brother after all.

So I forced myself to perk up and turned all of my attention to Arthur, "No Mattie. Why don't you and Francis go home together? Artie, I was wondering if you'd want to go grab a shake or something."

The normal scowl on Arthur's face melted into a look of confusion and a tilted head, "Why just you and I?"

I shrugged, "I was hoping that this could be our first date."

A blush came over Arthur's cheeks and he said, "Well alright then. But next time we go out, I'm calling the shots."

I grinned. I hadn't minded that. Some alphas didn't like for their omegas to be anything but meek and submissive. I couldn't care one way or another. I just wanted to fit in and get mom off my case. 

Just as Artie and I were about to walk off, I turned back to say goodbye to Mattie and Francis. Both of them had odd looks on their faces. I wondered why Mattie looked so upset though and sort of pale.

I planned to ask later that night.

#

I got home after dinner. My mother hadn't been upset at me being late because she'd been told by my brother what I was up to.

Even my father seemed happy that I was seeing somebody.

Though I'd already eaten at the diner I'd went to with Artie, I grabbed one of the buns from the supper I'd missed and ran up the stairs. I went right to Mattie's bedroom door and knocked.

No answer. I knocked again but still nothing.

"Hey Mattie, open up."

Still nothing.

I opened the door, which was unlocked. I saw Mattie laying on his bed, reading a book. He didn't even look up at me but I know that he knew I was there.

"Hey Mattie. Why didn't you answer me?" I asked as I sat on the edge of his bed. 

He ignored me.

I didn't like being ignored. It was one of the things that annoyed me the most. It had been especially annoying that Matthew was still reading away and not even looking at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked again as I plucked the textbook from my twin's hands.

Matthew had a venomous look that marred his normally soft and sweet features. He still said nothing to me other than reaching for his book. 

I tossed it across the room, "Don't hide from me. Just tell me what I did wrong."

Mattie huffed, flopped back down and angrily placed a pillow over his face. 

"Maaaatttttttttiiiiiiieeeeeee!" I whined because I had never had the heart to show my anger at my beloved sibling, even though his silent treatment hurt me more than I was able to express then.

I grabbed the pillow and hurled it hard across the room, letting it smack into a lamp, which fell to the floor. I made sure to keep my face from showing my anger. I didn't want to upset Mattie, which is why I took my anger out on the pillow and the hapless lamp it hit.

"Mattie just tell-" I started before he interrupted me.

"I don't know what's wrong alright," he whispered.

He had met my eyes at that point. He and I had always been able to tell when the other was telling the truth. Don't ask me how. We just could. 

"What do you mean?" I asked, laying down next to Mattie and began to pat his hair.

He sighed and snuggled closer to me. We liked to be like that. As close as possible and touch somehow. We'd never discussed why or even really thought about it. If it ever had crossed my mind I brushed it off as a twin thing. Not many twins were ever born, really. Nobody knew much about them. So I figured that had been normal behaviour. Besides, we never acted like that in public.

"I mean that I'm upset but I don't know why. My thoughts don't make sense. I couldn't even begin to explain to you a single thought because they are so jumbled and incoherent in my mind," said Mattie, the words mumbled into the fabric of my blue t-shirt.

 

"Oh. Well is it about me dating Arthur? Because I promise that I will always have time to spend with you as well," I had hoped that it wasn't because of me. The idea that I had hurt my twin cut me deep.

Matthew didn't answer my first question but he had said, "I'm glad. I always want you there. I know that much."

I grinned and used my toes to slip the socks off of my feet and onto Mattie's floor, "You don't have to worry about that. You'll never be able to get rid of me."

Much to my mother's chagrin, Mattie and I slept on the same bed that night. I suppose though, because I had been dating Arthur, she let it happen.

Her worry about me and Mattie being so close as teenagers should have tipped the two of us off. However me and Mattie never had an idea of what was really going on.

~==Present==~

Alfred leaned his cheek on his hand as he stared at the computer screen. This had taken a bit more of a depressing turn than he realized. Though he supposed that depressing was inevitable when it came to their past. At least when they were young.

He stood up, his indigestion gone, and he had the urge to do something nice for Mattie. He wanted to bring up the novel to Mattie.

More to the point, he wanted Mattie to write in it as well. The omega, however, did not enjoy thinking about any parts of their past that weren't happy times. He claimed that it was all too boring to spend time thinking about. Alfred wondered if Mattie was trying his hardest to block out the bad memories.

"I should go make a dinner for Mattie," said Alfred to himself, stretching out his sore muscles from sitting for too long.

Alfred loved to do nice things for his omega regardless of the reason. It made him feel good now that he was not longer working. Not providing money into the household made all of the alpha instincts inside of him protest. He had no idea how other alphas ever retired from their jobs.

Maybe they weren't as fidgety as he tended to be. 

That didn't matter right then, Alfred decided. He could still do nice things for Mattie.

It helped Alfred's case that Mattie couldn't cook anything other than the most basic of foods. He could make pancakes and all sorts of breakfast foods. When it came to dinner stuffs, everything Mattie made turned out bland or burnt. Or salads.

Poor Mattie. It wasn't as if he didn't know when foods were done, he just got so distracted by whatever else he was doing at the time, usually reading. 

Alfred, however, loved food to much to live off of such a small variety of foods. He may not be into all kinds of gourmet foods, but he loved variety. 

Good quality products were a bonus. 

That was why he found himself in the grocery store where one of Mattie's former patients worked. It stocked all organic foods, which Alfred didn't care so much about. What he did like was that everything was good quality. Some fruits or veggies may be slightly misshapen, but they would taste great and not be rotten.

Yes, Alfred did like veggies sometimes. They made meat look nice with their colours.

As Alfred filled his cart with items, he noticed that he was being followed. Behind him he noticed a little girl, no older than three years old, skipping happily behind him. She was humming a quiet tune under her breath, her billow blue skirt puffing out behind her. She had wild auburn hair and blood red eyes.

So cute.

Alfred looked around and saw that her father, an omega by the name of Lovino Vargas-Beilshimidt, was busy prepping food for the deli. Alfred smiled and then reached into his coat, where he drew out a couple of candies.

"Hello Josepha, would you like a candy?" Asked Alfred with a sly smirk.

He wasn't often able to sneak the little girl sweet snacks. According to her father, she was spoiled far too often. Though Alfred failed to see how you could spoil a sweet little child with a couple of candies.

"Thank you Mister Jones," she whispered, knowing just as well as Alfred did how much she was not supposed to take his candies.

So cute!

Just as he turned and tried to go about the rest of his shopping with his tiny shadow, he heard a voice behind him.

"Just what do you think that you're doing, giving her sweets before her dinner," said Lovino Vargas, the former patient of Mattie's who had come in a number of times while he was pregnant with Josepha.

"Oh, hi Lovino. Nice day, hmm?" Said Alfred, leaning against his cart and pretending like nothing was up.

As Lovino tried to pluck the last candy from his daughter's hand, she popped it into her mouth with a triumphant smile.

"It's like I'm the only one who gives a damn about what she puts into her body. Seriously," said Lovino, moving to adjust some products on a shelf.

Alfred then went along his way, picking out some more items to add to his cart. It all went well, listening to the child sing a cheerful tune behind him. He reached for something on the top shelf and that was when he felt a wave of dizziness come over him. He felt everything go out of focus and sway around him. He cringed and put a hand to his head, dropping the can that he held in his hand.

Distantly, as if it were far away, Alfred heard Josepha's small voice and then her patter of feet. Alfred leaned against the tall rack filled with cans and then eventually felt a hand on his shoulder.

Lovino's younger brother Feliciano was asking him if he was okay.

By then the dizziness had passed him by and he could see clearly. He pasted a smile on his face and said, "I just think that I didn't have enough to drink."

"Oh yes," said Feliciano, "It's getting warmer and warmer outside. You need to keep hydrated. Here, have a bottle on the house."

Alfred took it gratefully. He was just thirsty after all.

#

Pouring a generous ladle full of meat-rich tomato sauce over the perfectly cooked spaghetti noodles, Alfred spoke, without looking, to the omega sitting at the table behind him. Mattie was almost certain to have his nose buried in a book.

"Could you clear the table sweetheart?" said Alfred, grating some cheese over the sauce, "Dinner is done."

Mattie looked up, his already rather wrinkly forehead scrunching up even more in confusion as he looked up at the clock and said, "Oh. I didn't realize so much time had gone by."

The table was cleared quickly after that, though a bit messily with the books and papers being placed onto a counter instead of being put away properly.

Alfred grabbed the two of them some bottles of water. He'd rather have a beer, but it didn't really taste that good with pasta. 

Halfway through their meal, Alfred spoke, "So I have a new project."

He watched carefully as his twin tried to restrain a groan and failed. Mattie stared at the light brown wooden table, "Why? Please don't say you are going to start doing making duct-tape art. I know you saw that on the television with me last night."

The serious look on Mattie's face made Alfred break out into laughter, needing to put down his fork that had been loaded with a bite of noodles wound around the tines. 

"No, no, though it did look interesting. I'm working on a novel," Said Alfred, then shoving the bite into his mouth.

With a sigh of relief, Mattie said, "About what?"

"Our lives," said Alfred, "And I want you to write some of it as well when you get the time okay? It won't be the same if you don't."

Matthew's eyes dimmed slightly. Alfred knew that his mate didn't really care to think too much about their past if it wasn't only the good times, so Alfred knew that he had his work cut out for him. He really did hope that he could get his way. He really wanted Mattie to add his thoughts to the story Alfred was writing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew. I almost didn't make it in time for monday. Thankfully I am done all of the extra writing I had to do, so I should hopefully be back to focusing only on this. :D

Chapter Three

~= =Past- Alfred Writing= =~

I think that the first time I had those truly weird and yet, at the same time, unidentifiable feelings was near the end of the tenth grade. 

It was the end of the spring and we had been feeling the first touches of summer's impending heat. I was swinging in the park that day. Rather, it was Arthur who was swinging as I pushed him. He wasn't all that super happy about me pushing him. He was so dominant for an omega. Though that wasn't something I minded too much.

Okay, so I did like to have an omega who listened sometimes. I liked feeling like I could protect my partner. I knew that even then. Most alphas were like this.

Arthur, however, didn't like to be protected at all. He preferred to be the one who did the protecting. He was also loud. He was a dear friend though and he was very caring in his own way and not hard on the eyes by any means.

I just felt, at the time, that it would have been nice for my future mate to be a tad more soft spoken.

I didn't let myself think about it for too long and went back to chatting with my friends,who were also there with their own omega boyfriends and girlfriends.

On the path in front of the swings where we were, walked Mattie and Francis. They were eating ice cream.

I was opening my mouth and had been about to call out to the two of them to join us when I heard a sweet and beautiful sound. It came from Mattie and before then, it was something he'd only ever let me hear.

His true laugh, deep and from the soul. Not the small and subdued one that he'd give around people when he was feeling a bit shy and withdrawn.

It was like he'd opened up to Francis for some reason. 

Then I saw him touch Francis' upper arm and give a sweet smile.

I hadn't been able to help myself. I growled faintly under my breath and stalked over, barely aware of Arthur calling out rude words behind me. I didn't even know if they were at me or at Francis. I could feel nothing but getting over to my twin, the need to do so thrummed through my veins. I thought, at the time, that the need was due to Mattie not telling me that he was dating Francis. 

Grabbing onto Mattie's wrist. I was always taken aback at how his wrist could be the same size as mine and yet be so much silkier and infinitely more delicate. Mattie spun around with a gasp until he noticed me and his eyes softened.

I opened my mouth to say something cool and suave. What came out was, “Are you two going steady?”

It took every bit of my willpower not to smack my own forehead in exasperation at my own stupidity. Why couldn't I ever just keep my thoughts in my own head for once? Let Mattie bring this up himself. 

Mattie blinked over at me owlishly and then whispered, “Yes. We are.”

I was hurt. Maybe Francis wouldn't see it. Arthur for sure wouldn't because he was glaring up a storm at Francis, waggling his finger at him and saying something about corrupting innocent minds. Something like that. I didn't hear much of it. 

I just didn't understand why Mattie hadn't told me. I had thought we told each other everything.

He bit his lower lip and stared at the ground submissively. I supposed that I had been giving off vibes of aggression or something, seeing as how my hands had been clenched into fists and my stance was wide and my eyes narrowed. I felt like a heel for not keeping my composure better.

“Don't worry Mattie. I'm just- Are you happy?”

He nodded but still didn't look at me.

I slipped a finger under his chin and forced him to look at me. I gave him my widest grin, one fit for a hero and said, “Then that's what matters. Just tell me sooner next time, okay?”

Shuffling his feet back and forth, I could tell that Mattie wanted to hug me. I wanted to hug him as well, but we were siblings and out in public. After an alpha is not longer a child, they are discouraged from showing too much affection to people in public unless they are a love interest. At least, that was how it had been back then. It's different today. But then I would have been ostracized. Yelled at and shunned by my friends.

So I gave Mattie and pat on the shoulder and then moved to wrap my arm around Arthur. That freed Francis from Arthur's attempts at strangulation and allowed him to place a hand on the small of Mattie's back. 

“We should be going. It is our first date and we have further plans,” said Francis.

I wanted to snap his neck but I kept my feet firmly in place. I wanted to feel his life drain out of his body simply for touching Mattie.

I've always been a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.

Those feelings should really have been my first clue that everything was not normal with me.

#

That night, I sneaked into Mattie's room as I normally would. The light from his lamp cast a glow on his skin as he lay sprawled out on his bed. 

He had on the cutest blue pyjamas with a pattern of darker blue polka dots. There was the faintest flush on Mattie's face and his pink lips were parted just so. On his chest was a book that he'd fallen asleep while reading. 

I gently tried to relinquish his hold on he novel but Mattie groaned and rolled towards me. He moaned my name and then slowly began to open his eyes, reaching out with his well taken care of hands.   
The moment that he saw me, his eyes widened and his blushed.

“Why are you embarrassed?” I joked, working at the buttons of my pants to sleep in my underwear as I usually did with him, “You fall asleep reading all the time.”

Mattie gaped for air uselessly and scurried back. He was being so weird, but maybe he was just still feeling off from our encounter earlier in the day. 

As soon as I sat down, he said, “We're too old to share a bed Alfred.”

Alfred? Not Al or Alfie?

I reached out to stroke my hand over his hair and he flinched back.

“Is this because of Francis? Or maybe Mom?”

Mattie shook his head, “No. We're just getting too old to act like children.”

I flinched at his words and I saw Mattie do the same. It wounded me. Deeply. He was denying me what I felt was my right, to be by his side. 

Why did he do that to me? I had no idea at the time. 

So I decided to play it cool. I laughed and stood back up, getting my pants on, “No problem. It's alright. I'll just sleep by myself. I only did it because I thought you would like it. But it's not like I need to share a bed or anything. See ya.”

I didn't look back and I wasn't quiet as I stormed down the hall. I nodded to my father who gave me a weird look as he stood at the door of the bathroom wearing a robe with a bunch of weird beauty face goop slathered on his cheeks and forehead. I blatantly ignored my mother who didn't look pleased to find me coming out of my brother's room this close to bedtime.

I didn't care.

I left the house to go find Arthur.

#

After that, things had been different and yet very close to being the same as ever.

Mattie and I had drifted apart. We were more like brothers than whatever the heck else we'd been. Best friends maybe?

At the time, that was what it felt like I'd lost. My nearest and dearest friend.

We still talked, but it was as if the two of us just ignored the twin bond we shared. The one that begged us to be closer and to touch whenever possible, just like we'd done in the womb.

However things went back to normal when it came to the four of us as friends. We hung out all the time in spite of the fact that we were two couples. Double dates.

It felt so weird to have Francis dating Mattie but the urge to kill and generally destroy faded somewhat. I didn't really analyze why I felt like that. I just went along with the feelings until I realized that Mattie had been getting more and more ticked off at me growling at his boyfriend. 

So I gave it up and focused on Arthur. It wasn't easy to shift my attention like that, especially because Arthur also seemed to have a weird preoccupation with Francis. Of course on the one and only time I'd mentioned that, Arthur had given me the silent treatment for nearly a week until I apologized.

Between grade ten and twelve, time seemed to crawl by. My entire life in high school was like a lifetime in and of itself. I don't quite understand that when the rest of my life feels like it has sped by. Of course, I always had a preoccupation with something or another. There were lots of parties and other types of social gatherings. 

There was that pinnacle moment of every teenaged alpha or beta's life when they get their first car. I spend a whole lot of time working on it and generally loving it. Much of my time was also spent with Arthur. 

I also spent a good amount of time with the fellows on the various sports teams of which I was a part.

Aside from the basics that I learned in health class, I didn't know much about sex. The guys on the team would often trade play-omega magazines in the locker room when the coach wasn't paying attention. They'd given me them sometimes.

Honestly? They didn't really do it for me. 

I felt broken. The fact that I had a hard time getting an erection to the omegas between those pages baffled me.

The only explanation that I could think of was something that I'd learned in health class, one of the only things that had stuck in my mind. Sometimes, but not always, if two fated mates met before they gained their scents at the age of eighteen, they wouldn't react sexually to anybody else. This, of course, was not always the case by a long shot. There were always cases of adult fated mates who cheated on one another because they were too stupid to follow their instincts.

When two fated mates only reacted to one another, it often implied a strong bond.

I assumed that it meant that Arthur was my fated mate. I grew excited for the two of us to turn eighteen and for us to find out and have sex for the first time. 

However then I got a better idea. 

The guys on the football team were in the midst of dressing when they brought up the fact that it was pretty much tradition to have sex after prom, which at the time wasn't too far away. I obviously had plans to go with Arthur. It occurred to me that it didn't really matter if we gave ourselves to each other on our prom night or when we first smelled each other. 

I had made up my mind.

#

Of course, I still brought it up with Mattie.

By then, he and I had drifted apart in some ways. We no longer slept in the same room. No longer made prolonged eye contact when we were alone and didn't feel the need to speak. No longer held hands while sharing a blanket and gazing at the stars outside. 

Those types of things were what you did with a boyfriend. It was weird. Even I knew it and acknowledged it by then.

Mattie and I were siblings and that just wasn't normal to do, even if we did have a strong bond as twins. 

However we still spoke to each other when something was important.

The day that I had decided to give myself to Artie later in the month on prom, I left the locker room and into the cool and crisp air of the spring day. I had a towel around my neck and my bomber jacket on.

I saw Mattie leaning against my fire-red mustang. He smiled and waved at me.

“Why aren't you with Francis?” I asked, slugging my brother lightly on the shoulder as I passed him to get to the driver's seat.

I slipped into the passenger side when I leaned over and popped the lock. He sat down and placed his rucksack in the back beside mine. 

“He was busy with family things. He had to leave early. I knew you'd be around because you had practice today,” said Mattie, rolling down the window.

“Why are you doing that? It's cold out there,” I said, starting my car and driving it out of the lot.

Mattie reached onto the floor of the back seat and brought forward a hand full of fast food trash. I'd probably forgotten to throw all of that out for a while. Artie had been nagging me about it as well.

“This stuff is stinking the car up,” said Mattie, placing it back because he always disliked littering. That was the only reason I didn't just toss my trash out of the window, because I knew Mattie would hate it if he found out. 

“I'll clean it out at some point.”

“So where's Arthur?”

“Some kind of extracurricular thing,” I explained, because that was all I knew. I hoped Mattie didn't ask me for details if he didn't already know them.

“Oh right, at the university.”

“Yeah, he's almost as smart as you Mattie,” I said with a smile but I hadn't taken my eyes off the road. 

He hummed under his breath and watched the houses go by.

I decided to bring it up, “So on the night after prom? Do you plan to have sex with Francis?”

I had just pulled up into a parking lot for some fast food. The kind where the waitresses went up to your car window in roller skates and took your order. They were busy though with others from our high school so we had time to chat. I looked over after rolling down my window and saw that instead of a blush, Mattie had paled. 

I was about to ask why when the waitress came over to take our orders. We ordered burgers, fries and shakes. Then she went to put in the order.

“What's up Mattie? Why do you look weird? You getting a cold or something” I asked as I slouched in my seat.

He shook his head and cleared his throat before he said, “Nothing. I'm fine.”

We sat in silence for a few more moments before I said, “My question? You and Francis after prom.”

“I don't know. Maybe?” said Mattie quietly.

I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. A heard a happy whistle from behind me and I turned around and snapped, “What?”

It had been the poor waitress, who was thankfully good in her roller skates and didn't fall on her butt when she jumped at my outburst.

Mattie glared at me for scaring the poor girl and I felt like a heel. I gave her a tip with my payment after I took the food. 

“What about you and Arthur?” asked Mattie between bites, making sure to swallow his food before I spoke.

I often spoke with food in my mouth but I decided not to poke the beast more than I needed to then and end up ticking Mattie off even more, so I swallowed before I said anything.

“I think we will. He and I are probably mates so what's the point in waiting,” I said.

Mattie grimaced and said, “To make it more special. What if he isn't your mate?”

I countered with, “What if Francis isn't yours?”

He shrugged and I said, “So there you go.”

We drove home in silence after that. Nothing more really needed to be said.

~= = Present = =~

Alfred shook his head as he stood up and stretched. 

If only the two of them had been able to know better. They didn't and really, who would have expected them to know that they were mates since they were brothers. 

He walked down the hall, using the bathroom as quickly as he could at his age, and then going to the bedroom.

Leaning against the dresser in their room, Alfred had to catch his breath from his walk down the hall. As he changed into his sleep clothes, he stared at his mate. Or should he say, the lump of blankets on the bed. 

Alfred slipped under the blankets with a quiet chuckle. 

Even though Mattie was no longer of nesting age, he still slept under mounds of blankets out of sheer instinct and habit. It was really cute.

Reaching over to his mate, he brushed the soft strands of silver curls from off of that slightly wrinkled forehead. Mattie's face may be aged and weathered by the passing of time, but he was still as beautiful to him that night as he'd ever been. Curled up under their quilts in such a way made Alfred want to draw his lover into his arms and hold him tight protect him from the world. 

So he did just that.

Mattie mumbled against Alfred's neck with sleepy-slow words, “What're you doing?”

Alfred drew away enough so that he could place a soft and slow kiss on his mate's feather soft lips. Mattie responded with just as much love and passion, bringing his hands to tangle in Alfred's own hair. When they drew back, not able to kiss for as long as they'd done in their past without becoming breathless, they simply looked at each other.

It was Mattie who whispered, “I love you Alfie.”

“I love you too Mattie.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some songs I listened to while writing the prom scenes: The Supremes -Baby Love, Fats Domino -Blueberry Hill, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons- Can't Take My Eyes Off You. They helped set the mood. :)
> 
> Sorry for the delay. I've been sooo busy the past few days and I've only just now had the chance to scan this chapter for errors. I'm still pretty tired, so I apologize for any typos that escaped my notice.

Chapter Four

~= = Past- Alfred Writing = =~

In the end, things didn't quite go how I'd imagined. Though I should admit that I hadn't done much more planning than finding a hotel with two rooms beside each other. 

I'm getting ahead of myself though.

Prom was upon us before we really knew it. Our omega parents had went out and bought us all tuxedos that went well with one another. I'm fairly certain that they went and shopped for them together since they were all rather close friends. When Mattie had told our own parents that Francis was taking him to prom, they were just as overjoyed as when I'd told them the same about Arthur. I was glad to please them, though as an omega, I'm sure Mattie was happier. Omegas were more likely to want to please their family head than another alpha was.

When I answered the door to let in our friends on the night of prom, Francis grabbed Mattie's hand and kissed the back of it. He presented my twin with a clear box that had a corsage of some kind of purple flower. I think he said that it was an iris or something.

I handed over the rose corsage that I'd bought for Artie, even while I was looking at Mattie from the corner of my eye.

"Alfred!" said Arthur with a sigh of impatience and pointing to my parents behind me, "I think they want to take a picture of you putting the flowers on me."

My parents waited expectantly, giant camera at the ready. I felt turbulent inside, like a storm of emotions, but on the outside I was all smiles. I wanted to give the rose corsage to Mattie. Not Arthur.

I didn't have time to mull over that line of thought before we were posed for pictures. 

More photos than I could imagine were taken of us. Flashes of lights from the Polaroid cameras creating dancing orbs of light in my vision. I had to stumble blindly for my car when our parents had let us go so that they could have drinks and fawn over pictures of their nearly grown children.

As soon as the door slid shut, Francis called for me to stop.

"Go stand beside the wall of the house, you and Matthew," said Francis, taking out a Polaroid camera of his own from the backseat of his car.

His parents were rather well off, so I wasn't surprised to find that he had one of those of his own. Instead, I said, "Hmm? What's up?"

Arthur huffed and grumbled, "Well don't you want a photo of just the two of you?"

Mattie looked at me and smiled. I knew that he wanted a photo of us together. Just as much as I did. It felt important and at the time, I'd never been so happy that our boyfriends could read us so well that they knew what we wanted. 

I looked to see that nobody was going down the street either by walking or driving. Our parents wouldn't have been able to see us from where we were standing at the side of the house, beside a rose bush.

I grabbed Mattie's hand and clenched it as we moved to stand close. Arthur and Francis didn't bat an eye. Mattie and I may not have been very close physically for a couple of years. I remember Francis actually commenting on how weird it was for me and Mattie to not be constantly by each other's sides. 

So I'm sure that me and my twin holding hands then didn't phase them. 

Francis took the photo and handed me a copy. Mattie looked at it over my shoulder and chuckled, "You look good."

My raised a brow, "Then why the laugh Mattie?"

"You also look kind of funny, with all of your hair slicked back except for that cowlick, " said Mattie, reaching up and tugging it gently.

I playfully growled and tried to lunge for him, tugging his own wayward curl that wouldn't slick back, "I'll show you funny."

I may have been trying to play fight but I was very aware of keeping my alpha pheromones suppressed so that I didn't accidentally freak out my twin. Or Arthur for that matter. 

Francis was crying out nearby for us to not mess up our wonderful outfits. The other alpha never, ever exerted his dominance. So I didn't listen. Neither did Mattie. We only stopped chasing each other when Arthur grabbed both of our ears by the lobe and tugged us towards the cars.

"Behave yourselves. You're like children, I swear. I can't believe I'm only mere months older than the both of you," grumbled Arthur.

He didn't let us go until we were at our respective vehicles and ready to go in. I grinned over at my twin. I wish that I could tell him how great he looked. I wish I knew why I was thinking so much about Mattie and not about the omega who was now in the passenger side of my car to whom I was going to give my virginity. The omega who was probably going to be my mate. 

To avoid thinking about it, I put on the radio and gave Artie a kiss on the cheek.

#

At the prom, all of the omegas were decked out in their finest dresses or light coloured suits and tuxes. The dim lighting and flickering candles created a wonderful atmosphere of budding teenage romance.

Which were not my words but those of Francis, who'd clasped his hands in front of him and nearly swooned in delight. I rolled my eyes at the way that my brother had to support the alpha he was supposed to be on a date with. Francis was a good friend, but I just couldn't help but feel that my sweet omega twin should be with somebody stronger. 

I'm not a discriminating person. I don't really care who people date and what role they take in their relationship, regardless of the orientation that they were born with.

I just felt that my brother deserved all that was good in the world.

Not that I knew who that would have been. I just knew that it wasn't Francis. Knew that I hated the sight of those perfectly manicured hands on the small of my brother's back.

"Ow!" said Arthur who was swaying in my arms to the song that was playing. 

Or least he had been.

When I looked over at him I saw that I had gripped his arm a little too hard. I brushed my hand over the spot where I had accidentally hurt him and frowned. 

"I'm sorry Artie. I'm just a bit distracted, you know," I said, biting my lower lip and forcing my eyes away from Mattie and onto my date. 

He slipped back into my arms and danced with me. I noticed that he was also gazing over at Mattie and Francis. Probably because I'd just been looking there. 

"I realize. I assume that you booked a hotel room for tonight?" said Arthur, not meeting my eyes. 

I coughed and missed a step of the dance, stumbling ever so slightly before I got back into the rhythm and said, "How'd you know? That kind of thing is supposed to be a surprise."

"Because I know what everybody plans to do after and I knew that you wouldn't want to shag in the back of your car," said Arthur quietly, but I heard him since he had been right up close and saying the words into my ear.

"And you're okay with that?" I had asked. 

No way was I going to make my boyfriend feel pressured to have sex with me. How unsexy would it have been if Artie only felt like he had to be with me because it had been prom?

"Do you really think that I'd let you touch me if I wasn't okay with it?" said Artie, looking rather affronted. 

I sighed in relief and continued our dance, all the while hoping that Mattie wouldn't end up giving himself to Francis. I just had to remind myself that it wasn't my choice. It was Mattie's.

#

The four of us left the dance earlier than the other students. Not too early, we still made sure to enjoy ourselves and socialize. However in the last hour of the prom, my hands had become sweaty and I had started to tremble. The nerves over what was to come that night were killing me and being surrounded by so many other people, way too many of them alphas, was too much.

I assumed that I was not the only one, since my friends and brother readily agreed with me that leaving was a good idea.

We hopped in our cars and arrived there far too fast for my liking. I wanted more time. I supposed that I didn't have that time though and told myself to alpha up.

Before long I found myself sitting across from Artie, in our room, cross legged on the cheap fabric of the small hotel bed. Every now and then, one of us would reach towards the other with a shaking hand. We didn't say anything for the longest time.

It was Arthur who made the first move that night, leaning forward far too fast and mashing a hard kiss onto my lips. 

I tilted my head away and said, "Ow! Not so hard Artie."

A very subtle blush came over Arthur's cheeks and he grumbled, "Well you weren't doing anything."

I flopped onto my back and ran my hands through my hair, "Well most boyfriends would have at least made out after a couple years of dating."

Arthur shrugged, "We've kissed and held hands."

I looked up, somewhat amused, "According to the guys on my team, those things barely count."

"Well you know what sort of dimwits they are," said Arthur. 

I watched as he crawled closer to me. There was a determined look on his face. Arthur moved until he was directly over top of me and staring down into my eyes. I was shaking all over by then.

Sure I'm an alpha, but when it came to Arthur I had absolutely no feeling that told me to dominate him. If he tried to outright fight me, I'd do something to defend myself, sure. I just didn't feel an urge to take charge in the bedroom.

However I'd convinced myself that I'd wanted the sex with him. So I let him lean down and press a kiss on my lips.

I don't feel as if I should go into further detail here. Not a whole lot happened in retrospect, some rubbing through our slacks and the removal of our shirts. At the time, it was as far as we'd ever gone with another person.

However as soon as I'd reached for the top button of Artie's pants, he grabbed my wrist and whispered, "No."

I rested my head on top of his chest. My dick was only half erect and that was only due to the friction and not the person I was with. Every kiss felt forced. 

"What's wrong with me?" I whined, "You'd be a great mate, so why can't I do this.? Why don't I want this?"

Arthur shook his head, “I don't know. I may be eighteen but since you aren't, I can't tell if you are my mate or not. So really, it's just this weird feeling that this isn't right.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and then shimmied out from under me. I sat up and grabbed my shirt from the ground, sliding my arms inside. After doing up all but the two buttons closest to my neck, I closed my eyes and sighed.

“I'm going outside for some fresh air,” I said, hand already on the doorknob.

I didn't wait for Arthur's response.

At the time, I was just so confused. Part of me was also dreading what my mother was going to say. Heck, all of our parents were practically planning the mating ceremonies already. They were all sure sure that me and Artie would end up being mates. Just as they were sure that Francis and Mattie would be fated to one another as well. 

I rested my forearms on the railing of the walkway outside of my hotel room. From there I had a good view of both the sky and the rest of the circular shaped hotel building which curved around the courtyard.

The hotel was at least a decent one even if their sheets were uncomfortable.

I was focused on staring at the black sky full of twinkling pinpricks of light when I heard a door slam open nearby.

Of course I looked to see what it was and my eyes immediately narrowed. 

Mattie was standing there with a sheet wrapped around himself hastily. His eyes were wide and his breathing was ragged. Our eyes met and with a hitched sob, he flung himself into my arms, just barely able to hold onto the sheet that covered him.

I stroked over his hair and glared over at Francis, who was hurrying outside, doing up the top button of his pants.

If it wasn't for the fact that I had Mattie in my arms and was comforting him, I would have stalked right over to Francis and punched him in the face. I was really more of an act first ask questions later sort of guy. 

I supposed that it was good that I didn't attack him, because once I got a good look at Francis, I saw that his blue eyes were wide and he was gaping uselessly as if unable to find words. Not that I still wasn't completely pissed off at him for whatever the hell he'd done to my twin, but I was more willing to listen to whatever he had to say before I smashed in his face. 

Arthur chose that moment to come out and saw the three of us standing there, Matt trembling and naked, save for the sheet, in my arms. He had no such issues with storming up to Francis, grabbing the front of his shirt and popping him in the face with his fist.

“What did you do to him, huh?” yelled Arthur, ignoring the person three doors down who yelled out the window for him to shut up, “He's a nice boy and if you did anything against his will-”

Sniffling, Mattie turned around, “It's fine. He didn't do anything wrong.”

Even as he spoke, he backed up into my arms, still breathing rapidly, on the verge of panic. 

I said, “Are you sure? You don't have to defend him if he did.”

Mattie frowned, “I know. He didn't. I just freaked out but he asked permission before every step he took. It was me, not him.”

Francis still looked over concerned, shaking his head while holding a hand over his cheek where Arthur had hit him, “I should have been more aware of how you were feeling.”

I felt my heart sink in my chest. For some reason, I hoped that Mattie and Francis hadn't had sex. Especially since I couldn't do it with Artie. 

Mattie smiled sadly, “It's not your fault. It just isn't going to work out I guess.”

Nodding, Francis went back into the room, Arthur followed him, berating him the whole time.

It hadn't taken too long for the four of us to be on our way. That time Mattie was in my car though and Francis was driving Arthur home. We didn't speak the whole rest of the way home. I suppose neither of us had been in the mood for it. 

When we got in, we were thankful that our parents were asleep. I didn't want to answer questions right then, when I had been sure that my unease had been written all over my face. I knew that my introverted twin felt this way even more. 

Since Mattie was still visibly upset, I went into his room after stopping by mine to slip into some sleep clothes. 

He had been laying on his side, staring at the bedroom door, under his blankets. I slipped in beside him.

I had also been the first to break the silence, “What happened?”

Mattie avoided my gaze and tried to flip over to face the wall. I put my hand on his shoulder and said, “No. Tell me.”

“You won't like it.”

“I don't care.”

He hesitated for a bit longer before he finally, and softly, said, “He was halfway through penetrating me before I just couldn't handle it. I told him to pull out and he did.”

“So he's not your mate?”

Mattie said, “Probably not, no.”

I turned to lay on my back and stared at the creamy white ceiling of Mattie's bedroom, “Artie isn't mine. We didn't even get our pants off.”

“Oh,” said Mattie and I could have sworn that his mood picked up slightly upon hearing that.

The he sighed and whispered what happened to him.

"Francis and I had been making out a little bit. We got naked and we were close. Neither of us were super into it, I can see that now. But I just felt like I should do this. Like it would make Mother happy or something," said Mattie, twisting his hands in the sheet over him.

"So that was all that you two had done," I asked, daring to feel hope creep up on me.

Except that Mattie shook his head, "He penetrated me. It was then that I realized that I just couldn't go through with it. I had been trying to hide how I felt."

I clenched my fists. I tired to ignore how upset I was that my twin had another alpha's cock inside of him and said, "So he didn't pay enough attention to you to tell how upset you were?"

Mattie placed a hand on my cheek and said, "When he pulled away he whispered the words, oh thank god, under his breath. I think he was so focused on not stopping our encounter for my sake that he didn't notice that I also didn't want it."

Oh. That made it better I supposed, though I was still a bit annoyed. 

“So he didn't pressure you at all to have sex with him,” I asked, leaning into my brother's touch.

“Of course not. You've known him as long as I have. Francis is a good person. He'd never do something like that to anybody let alone one of his closest friends,” said Mattie with a smile and he snuggled further under the blankets.

“I know,” I said, closing my eyes and heaving out a breath of frustration, “I don't know why I'm so protective of you. I just want the best for you Mattie.”

“The feeling's mutual Alfie,” said Mattie, saying my nickname so sweetly that it took everything inside of me not to press a kiss to his forehead. 

That urge, quite frankly, scared me. Yet the fear wasn't enough for me to want to leave the bed. 

#

We graduated with honours just a few scant months later.

Okay. Mattie had received honours. I was lucky to pass my classes at all. Learning from a book was so boring. My brother knew how I felt about school and so had been quite pleased when he found out that I hadn't had to repeat a year. I was beyond proud of him though because his intelligence was astounding. He had only good things coming to him in his future. 

Arthur claimed that I shed a tear when Mattie grabbed a hold of his diploma but rest assured that it's all bull. He couldn't prove a thing.

Anyway, our birthdays were shortly after. 

We are twins, but we were born on separate days. Funny huh?

I'm older and was born on July 2nd at 11:50. Mattie was born on July 3rd at 12:10. For that reason we usually have a party with friends on July first. Then we would do a family thing on the 4th. 

Everything was good and Mattie and I were both extremely excited. 

Mating scent comes in almost to the very moment that somebody was born. In rare cases a person's scent and new ability to pick up on mating scents will be early or late by a matter of hours. I can't even think of a case where it has ever been late by days. I'm sure that maybe Mattie would know. 

That night Mattie and I were in the garage. He was sitting in a chair off to the side and was reading. Big surprise there really. I was leaning over the front of my car, fiddling with the engine. The record player was playing Elvis and I was tapping my feet to the jaunty tune. I even saw Mattie do the same. 

As soon as my scent came in, I set down the tool I was using and wiped my greasy hands on my ratty work jeans. Everything smelled clearer and I could detect traces of the mating scent of both of my parents through the area, lingering. It made me curl my nose up in disgust.

But I was happy, and so I danced over to Mattie, plucking the book from his hands.

“Hey! You just got black fingerprints all over Shakespeare!” protested Mattie.

I grabbed his hand and tried to yank him up, “I can't believe you enjoy that stuff. He's so boring. Dance with me instead.”

He rolled his eyes but grooved along with me. Neither of us, shall I admit, are very good dancers. We are pretty bad at it actually.

That still didn't stop me from moving along to the beat, hand in hand with Mattie. I even rested my hands on the sides of his body every now and again.

I suppose a lot more time went by then I realized, because suddenly he gasped and stood back. His eyes were wide and a hand went over his mouth. 

I was about to ask what was wrong when it hit me. Mattie had gained his scent. It was like pine, maple syrup and comforting like home. So irresistible and so right that I began to reach out for him before I could do anything to help myself.

I began to shake as it hit me.

My own twin brother was my mate.

Mattie had paled and he also trembled, subconsciously stepping closer to me.

I choked out the words, “We're mates. We're blood related but we're fated mates.”

I took two steps forward and I saw panic bloom in Mattie's eyes as he sucked in a breath and bolted. He was barefooted and running out of the garage door and away from me.

Now really, that was a mistake. I was an alpha who had just found their mate. Every single one of my instincts that night demanded that I stay close to Mattie. Omegas didn't often run from their fated mates, but when they do, their alpha will have nearly no choice but to follow.

It wasn't as though I wanted to hurt him in any way. Rather the opposite.

I wanted to be there to keep him safe from others. The words, 'Protect', and, 'Mate,' were running through my head like a mantra as I ran, also in bare feet. The grass was cold and stones and branches dug into the sensitive soles of my feet but I didn't slow down. I followed Mattie's scent which had left a sweet and telling trail after him.

It led into the nearby woods and I ran until I could hear Mattie leaning against a tree, trying to catch his breath. He hadn't been as athletic as I was, so he wore out before I did.

I stopped, right up close to him before he had the chance to back away. Out of sheer instinct to claim my mate in some way shape or from, I pressed the front of my body to his. Then I slammed my lips onto his, rough and passionate but sloppy from inexperience. He slowly kissed back as well before we both pull away from each other.

We still stand close though, allowing the backs of our index fingers to touch.

“I'm sorry,” I said and groaned, “I shouldn't have.”

Mattie bit his lower lip and said, “I'm sorry for running but I understand your urges. I was just scared and you know how I get. Run first before thinking.”

I nodded and then just flopped on the ground to sit on the soft bed of pine needles of the forest floor.

“I love you Mattie. God I do. But I've never thought about you this way. Have you about me?” I said, my brows knit with my sheer confusion.

He shook his head and added, “No, I've never. I always had this nagging feeling that something was different about us. I just didn't know what.”

“Same. Maybe that was why mom and dad were always so paranoid about us being close.”

“I think it's called Fated Twins,” said Mattie, playing with a pine cone that he'd picked up and was staring intently at.

“There's others like us?” I asked hopefully. 

I didn't want to be alone, the only one of my kind aside from Mattie. This was already going to be so bad. 

Mattie grimaced and was quiet for a good long while. After it had been too long I poked his side and said, “What?”

He sighed and said, “They'd be dead Alfie, all of them.”

“What? Why?”

Mattie threw the pine cone into the bushes and said, “Because they'd be killed once people found them out. If they weren't killed by their communities they would be sent to prison and killed there. It's illegal because it'd incest, regardless of how little choice we have in the matter.”

Tears built up in Mattie's eyes and I could see the fear in them. It was that same fear I felt inside of my own chest. I was an alpha though and my omega was frightened. I had to push down my own feelings of fright and I hugged Mattie for all I was worth.

“This may be weird to me Mattie and you. However I promise that I will protect you with everything I have. That was true even before tonight. Okay?” I said, whispering promises into my twin's ear.

He cried on my chest for at least half an hour and I didn't blame him one bit. 

That night, when we went to bed, it was in separate rooms. Both of us wanted to be close to each other, but we didn't want to arouse the suspicions of our parents until we could figure out what to do.

I didn't get any sleep that night.

~= = Present Day = =~

Alfred got up from his desk with a smile. Obviously the fact that he was around to write his story was proof that the two of them had received their happy ending.

Going downstairs and brewing a coffee, Alfred looked up at the clock on the wall.

With a curse he realized that he'd missed his doctor's appointment.

It was just a check-up, of course. Alfred was sure that he'd have been given a clear bill of health regardless. He was fit as a fiddle.

He'd re-book the appointment later.

Everything would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question: I'd like to write a FRUK companion piece to this. Should I work on it while working on this? Or should I write it after? If I write it during, updates for this will be slower. However if I write it afterwards you'll have to wait longer to see Arthur and Francis' full story. I can go either way really :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who didn't read the first story in this omega-verse series, you will notice an asterisk marking a certain part in the story. It is related the end notes, which go over certain aspects of omega/alpha anatomy and so on.
> 
> To make up for my last chapter being late, you can have this one early. ^_^

Chapter Five

~= = Past – Alfred writing = =~

The days that went by after that were really odd for me. Well, it had been weird for both of us to be honest, just more-so for me.

Right from the first morning that I woke up in a separate bed from my brother, I felt the pangs of upset in my chest. I wanted to be near him and craved to protect him. I'd always felt that way about him, which suddenly put my entire past into perspective. 

Yet despite how much I wanted him and wanted to be close to him, these new instincts that demanded I claim Mattie in a most carnal way, scared me. It was so truly bizarre and creepy to feel that way for my twin brother. He and I had the same blood running through our veins.

I felt like I must have been broken to have been born that way. 

Yet I had a while to think about it before he or I needed to do anything about it.

Mattie and I made sure to only act as we ever did, close but not overly familiar with each other in the way we both craved. Nobody seemed to suspect that we'd ended up as mates. Our mother even asked us if we'd smelled anything that appealed to us while out and about the town. Of course we replied that we hadn't. It hadn't been too long anyway and finding your fated mate within a year was the norm.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Francis had ended up as mates. Mattie had been the one to tell me the news and after the shock wore off, I had to wonder whether or not it was the most normal thing in the world. The more I thought about it, the more the two of them seemed perfect for each other. 

It was amusing to see Arthur act as if he were a possessive alpha and for Francis to let him. I couldn't profess to understand that. It didn't seem as if Francis were just tolerating his omega's dominance, but rather it seemed as if the behaviour was wanted and craved. 

I was happy for them either way and wished them all the best in their new life together, as corny as that sounds. Those were the actual words I'd used. 

Both of them had scoffed and glared at each other. Yet when they thought nobody was looking, they'd given each other the most loving gazes.

I wished that Mattie and I could look at each other like that. Or should I say that I wished we were allowed to look at each other like that.

A couple weeks after my birthday, Arthur dragged me aside.

While he was blushing and fumbling for words, he eventually said, “If you ever need anything, you can ask Francis and I. You know that right?”

I had smiled and nodded, drawing Artie into a great big bear hug.

His words had really meant a lot to me and that was the first time that I'd wondered if he'd suspected anything between me and Mattie. Though I'd always thought that Artie wasn't really that perceptive. 

Of course Mattie had over heard what Arthur had said to me. He had this amazing skill of going unseen when it was convenient. He'd eavesdropped and I didn't mind at all. It had never bothered me when he'd done that. For as long as we could speak, we'd tell each other almost everything. The only time we didn't was when we'd been teenagers and had been dating Arthur and Francis. 

“I wonder if he knows?” asked Mattie, wringing his hands and leaning, slouched against the god-awful floral wallpaper that our father had chosen for the sitting room.

I leaned beside him, keeping a distance I didn't want, and whispered, “I doubt it. He's usually too lost in his own thoughts and staring off into thin air to notice what's going on with actual people.”

Matthew snorted lightly but defended our friend, “He's not that bad. Arthur just has a vivid imagination. You've read the stories he's written.”

I sucked my lips into my mouth and then let them out slowly, “I may have lied about that. I didn't read them. They're so loooong.”

After rolling his eyes, Mattie said, “Well it doesn't matter. What you need to know is that they are quite well written, especially for somebody just turning eighteen.”

I leaned in a with a grin, I said, “You could write great stories too I bet.”

Matthew snorted even louder that time and said, “I have the vocabulary but no imagination. I'd much rather write a paper on how blah blah blah polymerase and blah blah blah blah nucleotides and blah-”

I smiled and just watched Mattie's lips move even though I didn't understand most of what was coming out of his mouth. He had much a pretty mouth, especially when he was spouting off all of the brilliant things in that amazing mind of his. 

Just then I'd had the sudden urge to kiss him. Too feel his lips warm and pliant under my own.

However just as I started to lean forth, I heard a cough come from the doorway.

Our father, standing meekly with a box of donuts in his hands, “Your friend just left as your mother and I were coming home. Come into the kitchen darlings and we can have some coffee with these.”

That had been a close call.

However being stopped from what I'd been about to do didn't stop the fear from pulsing in my chest.

#

About a month after our birthdays, our parents went on vacation.

I don't know why, because it didn't seem to be any sort of special occasion. Just that they'd packed up and told us to keep the house in one piece. 

This was fortunate for both Mattie and myself. After all, an omega's heat will hit about a month after they find their fated mate.

Before our mother had come to tell me that she and dad were leaving for around a week, I had already seen signs of Mattie nesting.

He'd tried hard to hide it, keeping the nest in his closet and constructed in a way that he could pull it out into the room for when he needed it, with minimal fuss. He couldn't let our parents notice that he was nesting of course. If they did realize that he was close to heat, they'd know that he found his mate.

Thankfully the privacy of an adult omega was valued heavily back then, so Mattie was in charge of putting his own clothes away in his closet. Our parents wouldn't go snooping around in his closet or dresser anymore.

I, however, had no such issues with rifling through Mattie's things. Our belongings often merged together and I often found my stuff in his room for no apparent reason. The day I'd found the start of his nest I'd been looking for a sweater of mine to put into the wash.

I'd worn it when I'd gone out with friends. Or should I say, when Mattie forced me away from him to keep up the appearance that I wasn't an alpha who's just found their mate and didn't want to leave their side. 

I had looked all over and couldn't find it until I'd opened the closet wide and saw my sweater. It was in the middle of Mattie's makeshift nest.

I felt my face warm with pleasure at the thought that Mattie wanted my scent in his nest. It made sense of course, since we were mates. However the two of us had still been struggling with showing each other any sort of non-sibling affection. It was nice to know that he was also drifting closer to me as I was to him. 

After finding Mattie's nest, I had the intense desire to stay close to him and his room. However until our parents were gone from the house, I kept making excuses to pace by Matt's bedroom door. I'd offer to carry my parents luggage from their room to the door so that I could catch a glimpse of Mattie laying on his bed and reading. I didn't miss how fidgety he was and how he kept glancing at his closet.

As soon as our parents pulled out of the driveway in their fully loaded car and drove up the road a little, I ran upstairs, my socked feet pounding on the floor. I felt some of my fear ease away, even if just for the next week.

Mattie had already begun to pull the blankets and pillows out of his closet and into a semi-circle. Every placement of fabric was given much thought, causing Matthew to pause and stare at possible locations for the item.

“You're taking a while with building that,” I said, sitting cross-legged on Mattie's bed, staring down at him as he knelt to place a cushion just so.

“I want it to be perfect,” said Mattie, grabbing a sheet and using it to build up a wall by rolling it up.

“Why do omegas even build nests anyway? I mean, birds use nests to lay their eggs in,” I said.

Matthew looked up at me and said, “Omegas give birth in nests too.”

That confused me even more, “Yeah, and you aren't pregnant, let alone about to pop out a baby.”

Grimacing, Mattie said, “Charming Al.”

After placing one more pillow he went and sat on the bed beside me and said, “The nest started out as an omega's way to attract an alpha. A strong and well built nest would mean a capable omega. One that would give birth to and raise strong offspring.”

My eyes widened, “They didn't teach that in school. At least I don't think they did. Oh man, I mean I didn't always pay attention so I probably missed that.”

Mattie shook his head, “You didn't miss anything. They don't teach that in school yet. Omegas and alphas did that before humans evolved into what we are today.”

“Oh right. Well what about the whole fated mates thing?” I asked, “I mean, why did they need to attract a mate if they knew that they had one coming to them?”

Mattie grinned and poked the tip of my nose with his index finger, “See, you're smarter than you give yourself credit for. And to answer your question, there weren't any fated mates back then.”

“Hmm,” I said, not having much else to contribute to the conversation.

It turned out that it was okay because Mattie continued to speak.

“I'm fascinated by fated mates and how they suddenly came about and why. I think that's what I'd like to study in University,” said Mattie, staring at the ceiling and off in his own little world. 

I placed my hand over his and said, “And I'll follow you wherever you end up going to school.”

Mattie beamed, “I'm glad.”

The rest of the day was spent preparing supplies by the nest and just hanging out as brothers and waiting for the inevitable.

#

Since we had the house to ourselves, I slept in the same room with him for the first time since we realized that we were mates. Neither of us touched the other too intimately. Even though Mattie's heat was so close, we still weren't ready for anything that two lovers would do. It had taken every bit of willpower I had to avoid thinking of the days to come.

They scared me.

I knew that Mattie felt the same. As we rested on the bed, snuggled under the only remaining blanket in the house that wasn't either in the nest or in our parent's room, we stared at each other. Mattie's bottom lip wobbled and his eyes brimmed with tears. Only one teardrop fell. I brushed it away with my thumb and gave him a tight hug.

The heat would change everything. We would become immoral in the eyes of society.

When I woke up the next morning it was to a room that was dimly lit by the slowly rising sun. I patted the bed beside me and didn't feel anything but a rapidly cooling bed sheet.

I sat up and looked into the nest and gasped, immediately turning away. Only to look back cautiously and then turning away once more. 

Mattie was so gloriously, sinfully, magnificently, and terribly naked. Shiny rivulets of slick dripped down Mattie's pale legs, which were spread and baring every part of his behind. I could see his tiny pink hole, quivering and soaked with the clear fluid, perfectly from where I sat. He was presenting himself to me. His body was trembling and his head was hanging so that his forehead was touching the floor of the nest. Mattie was whimpering.

I may not have known much of what to do, or what I had been willing to do. However I knew that my mate needed me close. So I got down into the nest and sat by Mattie's head, trying to ignore that fact that he was naked. 

He looked up and I saw his glazed over violet eyes. He licked his lips and said, “Alfie.”

Actually, it was more of a moan.

The smell that was in the nest hung thick in the air, like a concentrated version of his mate scent, thick maple and pine. It was so strong that I became immediately aroused, my cock as hard as it had ever been before. 

I ignored it for now and simple stroked my fingers through Mattie's hair.

“Do you need anything?” I asked innocently.

Before I realized what he was about to do, he moved to nuzzle his face right over my erection. I'd nearly forgotten that heat changed how an omega acted. Nearly every one of their waking thoughts was supposed to be about sex and mating with their alpha. 

A fierce blush spread over my cheeks and I resisted the urge to back away but I did flinch. I gently cupped Mattie's cheeks and made him look up at me. 

His lips seemed plumper than normal, very red, and parted. The tip of his tongue moved out to swipe slowly over his top lip before disappearing back into his mouth.

He purred, “I need you Alfie.”

Panicked, I leapt out of the nest, “I bet that you're thirsty. Yep, so thirsty. I'll get you some water because you're thirsty.”

I nearly squeaked those last words out and ran from the room like a coward. I didn't stop until I was in the kitchen, leaning my forehead against the cool counter until I could catch my breath and calm my racing heart. 

Every single thought in my head was swirling and jumbled and I had no idea what to do. I was terrified but so incredibly horny that I felt like bursting. I wanted to pound into my twin's tight heat. What would people think of me if they knew?

I smacked my head down on the counter and then said, “Ouch.”

“Well that was a stupid thing to do,” said Arthur, walking into the kitchen from the entrance way.

Francis was following behind him and was sniffing the air. Arthur did the same thing soon after. 

I gaped at them. My inner turmoil from earlier had rendered me unable to think properly, so all I could say was, “How? You? Huh?”

“You left the door unlocked, idiot. What in the world is that smell? It's unpleasant like another omega's heat or something,” said Arthur, perching himself on a stool by the kitchen counter.

Francis made himself at home and began to fill the kettle with water and put it on the stove, starting it heating, “It is a heat. It is Matthew, non?”

I blinked helplessly before I said, “Uh, yeah. I'm just down here to get him a water.”

Both of them turned as one to stare at me and then exchange a look with one another. It was Arthur who said, “Wouldn't his alpha dislike you being in the room with him while he's like that?”

There was an odd tone of something in his voice that I didn't quite understand and I began to breath rapidly again, close to freaking out once more. 

Francis placed a hand on my shoulder and said, “What is wrong, mon ami? You can tell us anything, you know.”

I shook my head, “No.”

“Are you sure? Because-” began Francis before Arthur cut him off with his own words. 

“For Gods sake Alfred, Francis and I have suspected that you two might be mates since a week or so after prom,” said Arthur, getting to his feet and taking the whistling kettle off of the red stove element.

“What? And you are still here talking to me?” I said, flabbergasted.

“It is different. I will give you that,” said Francis, grabbing down three cups, “But it makes so much sense once I think back on it.”

Arthur nodded and added tea bags to the mugs, “Don't worry about us telling on you. We won't.”

Having my two closest friends after my brother standing before me and telling me that they were alright with me and Mattie being brothers and mates? It did wonders for me. I didn't feel quite so alone anymore.

I knew that there were so many hurdles to face, but they all felt a bit more manageable.

“Thanks guys,” I said, taking a sip of my tea before I put it down suddenly and swore, “Shit. Mattie probably needs me.”

I hastily grabbed the tallest glass we had and filled it with icy cold water. 

Arthur said, “We were going to ask you two to go out today, but you are both clearly busy. Come over when Matthew's heat is done.”

Giving a thumbs up, I dashed back up the stairs, calling down, “Can you lock up after me? Take my key from the key rack. Thanks a bunch.”

“Git!”

I laughed and went back into the erotically scented bedroom and had to struggle not to let the condensation covered glass slip to the floor.

Mattie was still crying out softly. I couldn't see him until I circled the bed. He had positioned himself to present his body in the direction he knew I'd be coming.

I put the water down on the outside of the nest and went on my knees beside Mattie. Then, I eased him up to sit up and handed him the water.

“You need to drink lots'a water. I know that much,” I said with a shaky voice. 

After downing every drop in mere moments, Mattie leaned into my body, “Thank you, but I need more.”

“I can go get more water if you-” I said before Mattie pressed his lips onto mine, so gentle and sweet that I shuddered. 

He pulled back a fraction and stared up at me, desperate and needy, letting loose an occasional whimper. Then he licked down my neck, over my Adam's apple, and to the top of my shirt, where the skin was hidden. I made no move to stop him.

Mattie was everything that I'd ever thought I'd want in a mate. He was utterly perfect.

“Alfie. I need you inside of me,” he said.

I felt my resolve crumbling in the wake of his seduction. Maybe the hormones worked to ease my fears, because I couldn't see any faults in being with him. All I saw was everything about him that I'd loved since the two of us were small children. 

I showed him that I made my decision by standing up and removing every last article of clothing, bared to him as completely as he was to me. 

Brushing my fingers over his cheek, I kissed him and pressed him down to the floor of the nest. He let out a vibrant mewl and wrapped his legs around my waist. His hips pressed up and met mine, sliding his hard cock against my own, spreading drops of his pre-cum over my abdomen.

I kissed him sloppily, our teeth clacking together painfully but neither of us cared to stop. Finally being close to my twin in that way felt like a huge burden was taken off of my shoulders. I could stop restraining myself from what I hadn't known I'd wanted for so long. 

Already I felt desperate for Mattie's body, wanting to feel him all around me, closer and closer. I pressed against him until nearly every part of our skin was touching.

Our tongues swirled around each other, testing and tasting. I wanted to map out every inch of his mouth with my tongue, but there wasn't time for that. Not right then, when all Mattie wanted was for me to be inside of him.

I pulled back and looked down at him fondly. I wanted to be able to ask him if he was really sure that he wanted to have sex with me, but I knew that he was in no place to really tell me for sure.

I pressed a kiss to each of his cheeks and said, "I know that you need this and it will ease your aches."

"So do iiittt, put your dick inside of me," said Mattie, shocking me with his bold and blunt words.

"I just don't want you to regret this when you are yourself again," I said, nuzzling his neck.

I had been dangerously close to simply pressing myself right into him then and there. What I wanted more, though, was to just hear again that he needed me. I suppose that I really wanted him to give me permission.

"I could never regret being with you," said Mattie, his eyes momentarily losing their lusty sheen and looking at me with the utmost seriousness, "Even when I was scared of this before my heat started, it was never of you. I love you, whether as a brother or a lover."

I gave him one last deep kiss, to show him how much his words meant to me. Then I pulled back and propped his hips up by slinging his legs over my shoulders. Running my hand down his thighs, which had been quivering and covered in a mix of sweat and slick, I trailed downwards until I reached his already drenched hole.

I pressed in one finger as a test and when I found it already quite loose, I put in two and then three shortly afterwards.

Mattie was wiggling restlessly and squalling out a stream out nonsense words. I had to use my free hand to try to keep him in place, rubbing soothingly up and down the side of his body.

"Mattie calm down. You aren't hurt are you?" I asked, though I was almost positive that he wasn't

A heat wasn't an excuse to act like an presumptuous ass though, so I wanted to be absolute sure of his comfort.

"Fuck me!" He cried and then scrabbled his hands to grab any part of me he could while dragging me down to him, "Fuck me!"

I was happy to comply, pressing the tip of my cock to his hole and slowly sinking inside, relishing the feel of the scorching heat all around me. It was so tight and pulsing around me.

During heat, the ass opened to a different hole*. The mating channel or seed channel. Different places around the world called it different things really. All I knew was that heat sex was different than sex every other time of the year. It felt so special and wonderful.

Once I was all the way inside of my mate I stayed still, panting and resting my forehead on Mattie's shoulder. I knew that he wanted me to move because he had begun to drag his blunt fingernails down my back and tried to move his hips. My entire body was over him and pinning him down, so he couldn't gain any space to move my cock inside of himself. I had my eyes closed

I sucked up a big red spot on his neck and then managed to pant out the words, “I need a second. This feels so good I just want our first time to last.”

Even though Mattie gave me a nod, I felt him shake under me as he waited. 

Once I grounded myself, I opened my eyes and stared down at him as I made the first thrusts. I went slow, at first, because I was still so cautious. However I soon saw that Mattie needed more and built up my pace until I was slamming in and out of his body. A wet squelching filled the room alongside his mewls of pleasure and my grunts.

Having no idea what to do with my hands, I brushed them all over Mattie's silken skin which was damp with sweat. I grabbed his hips and then tugged at his hair. I nipped and I licked in a haphazard fashion, wanting to be everywhere at once.

A heat grew inside of me as I slid into him, feeling him tighten his inner walls around me. He dug his fingers into my sides.

“Oh Alfred I'm close,” he cried, right before he spilled ribbon after ribbon of creamy white over his stomach, dribbling down his one side. 

I was just on the edge of bliss myself when he tilted his neck and, in an oh-so-quiet and sated voice, whispered, “Bite me. Make me yours.”

So I did. I bit deep into the crook of his neck with my newly descended and sharp alpha teeth, tasting copper tang of my lover's blood. A knot formed at the base of my dick as I began to cum hard into Mattie's body. Every last drop was milked from my body as Mattie latched his teeth onto the skin right over my heart. 

I felt our bond solidify when he did that, connecting the two of us forever. At least that was how it felt for me.

It took a while for my knot to deflate and I spent it all staring wordlessly down at the languid body of my sweet brother. I eventually pulled free when my knot went down, Mattie letting out a small whimper of protest, even though he didn't move to do anything about it. Then, I lay beside him, stroking his hair before drifting back into a short sleep.

~ = = Present Day = = ~

“Alfred,” called Matthew from the hallway and peeking his head inside of the study, “Are you ready?”

Alfred looked up from the screen and gave a sheepish looking grin, “Yep. All suited up.”

He gestured down at his body, clothes in a nice grey collared shirt with silver pinstripes and a black tie. Alfred was also wearing his best black slacks.

Matthew stared for a good minute before going up to Alfred. Grabbing the alpha's tie, the omega drew him into a kiss. 

“I do so love it when you are all dressed up,” said Matthew when he drew back.

Alfred tilted his head when he saw the glazed look in his lover's eyes and then let a slow grin slide over his lips.

“Mattie, you know,” said Alfred, “I was just writing about our first time having sex.”

“Were you now,” said Matthew, reaching out to a nearby reading chair and grabbing a cushion.

Putting the pillow on the ground, Matthew carefully sunk to his knees upon it. 

“Yes. I was. That time was very special. Your first heat,” said Alfred, ending his words on a gasp when Matthew undid the zipper of his pants. 

“Hmm, well let us make another special time,” said Matthew, smiling up at Alfred with wide eyes, shiny with faux innocence, “After all, we have about twenty minutes before we need to leave for the dinner party.”

Alfred didn't have time to answer before Matthew's hot and wet mouth engulfed him.

He knew it would be a good night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *This hole is an opening that is adjacent to the anus, but not quite inside of it. The two orifices use the same hole. Unless an omega is in heat, or heavily stimulated, the heat canal doesn't open. This is nature's way of helping to reduce germs and bacteria from entering the cervix and uterus. Also, this entrance is used for conception only.   
> Close to the due date, a line of darkened skin will appear on the pregnant male's lower abdomen. It grows darker and darker until the person goes into labour. Upon going into labour, the skin will weaken in the area and split into an opening, through which the child will be born.  
> It is said that the body developed this way to combat the infertility that plagued the entire human race. Females have been even known to grow 'male' genitalia in the absence of available men. Though this information wasn't really taught in all schools at the time that the boys were teenagers. Mattie and Al lived in a small town where the schools were still mostly teaching science that didn't contradict religion. Think of it as a sort of evolution vs. Creationism thing. This isn't to stomp on anybody's beliefs btw. It's just that Matthew in this story is very much a man of science and isn't religious at all. Alfred is also not religious, even though most of what Matthew tries to teach him about evolution doesn't sink in.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I might as well not even bother trying to stick to a schedule. I'll just post them when they are done and try to not take more than a week.
> 
> This chapter is a sad one. It's pretty frickin' depressing. It will have a happy ending. I really don't do unhappy endings when the story is romance. It just isn't me. That isn't to say that you won't cry in the meantime. :D I hope you like!
> 
> Chung Lien=Vietnam  
> Xiao Mei= Taiwan  
> Li Xiao Chun= Hong Kong  
> Emil= Iceland

Chapter Six

~ = = Present = = ~

Sitting at a long wooden table draped with a swanky silk cover, Alfred looked down beside his plate and tried to remember which fork he was supposed to use. There were a few of them and it confused him greatly. On the plate before him was a really yummy looking steak. The set-up of the dinner was fancy but the food was plentiful.

If only he could figure out which fork to use. 

The hostess tapped Alfred's arm and pointed to the right fork. She had a kind smile on her face, slightly wrinkled as well.

“Sorry for all the frills. Setting the table this way is a habit that dies hard I suppose. I don't really care which fork you use to be honest,” said Mrs. Hannigan, a colleague of Mattie's and a good friend.

Everybody at the table were good friends of Mattie and good people as well.

Alfred gave a charming grin and picked up the correct utensil, “Well thank you for the help anyway.”

“So, have you been enjoying retirement?” asked Mrs. Hannigan, then taking a sip of wine. 

Humming, Alfred said, “I hadn't been. I'm not the type to be idle for very long. However I started writing the story of the relationship between Mattie and I.”

The great thing about these people and the very reason that Alfred was willing to endure dinner parties, went beyond friendship. They knew that he and Mattie were fated twins and didn't judge the two of them in the slightest.

“Really? What part are you at? I'd love to hear it,” said an omega a couple seats away.

“It's sort of a sad part and I haven't written it yet,” said Alfred, taking a sip of his water.

Another person piped up, “That's fine. Use us as a test run before you write everything down.”

Matthew gave Alfred an encouraging smile.

So Alfred began to speak, giving them a small bit of background of the story before he launched into what was about be chapter six of his book.

~ = = Past – Alfred's POV = = ~

Three days.

That was how much time we had with each other, basking in the bliss of Mattie's first heat.

When he and I weren't tangled up in each other's limbs in the nest that he'd built, I was sleeping next to him or gathering food to nourish my starving mate. Never had I felt so fulfilled when I was taking care of Mattie, providing for him what he needed. 

On the evening of our third day, we had just finished another round of sex and were settling down to sleep. I figured that he and I had about two more days before his heat ended and though I was tired, I was looking forward to each any every one of those moments. 

I was so exhausted, in fact, that I hadn't heard the car pull into the driveway or the front door open. I hadn't heard anybody call my name as they went up the stairs. What I did hear and smell was somebody's scent drift in as they opened the door to Mattie's room.

“Matthew? You found your mate and didn't tell us? Why-” said our father, stepping in, keeping a hunch-backed and submissive stance as he edged forward, obviously trying to be respectful of the his omega-son's alpha.

I knew the second that he saw me leaning possessively over Mattie because a gasped followed, as well a hand being slapped over his own mouth. Our father ran from the room.

Our mother, a single brow raised, came into our room next, “What in the world is going on? Did you say something to him?”

I hadn't snarled at my father. There wasn't a single part of me that felt threatened by another omega. Mother, on the other hand, was an alpha.

I very much felt threatened by her.

A deep growl ripped from my throat, waking up Mattie and causing him to sleepily try to survey the scene. However his heat-groggy mind had a hard time registering anything other than primal need. I had to protect Mattie by myself.

“Stay away,” I said in a low tone, feeling a divide rip between my mother and I.

Some kind of coming of age severing of parent and child to every young alpha and their dominant parent. There was a difference then, however, when my mother snarled back. Her eyes flashed aggressively and she just about edged towards me as if to provoke a fight.

Except that she pulled back at the last moment and left the room.

I deflated, resting my head on Mattie's chest, feeling his hand card through my hair. He was murmuring gentle words, trying to comfort me as best as he could, given what his state at the time was. I could feel his arousal against my hip and the fear making his lips tremble as he kissed my forehead. Poor Mattie was a mix of emotions and I felt so damn bad for him.

Giving him one last kiss on the lips. I sat up and shimmied into some clothes, despite his protest.

“I need to pack a bag. I'm not leaving the room, but your clothes will fit me anyway,” I said, reaching up to the top shelf of the closet that we were already in and drawing down a large bag.

“Why?” whined Mattie, “We'll have time to finish my heat, right?”

I shook my head, “I think ma's going to kick us out. When she does Ill drive us somewhere secluded, a forest or something. We'll finish your heat in the car. Okay Mattie?”

He grimaced. Mattie didn't want to leave his nest. It went against everything he felt. Just like it went against everything I felt, everything that screamed at me to keep him in his nest where he would be safe.

I shook as I shoved whatever clothes I could find into the bag. I also grabbed a bit of the money Mattie had saved up from birthdays. 

It would have to be enough to get us away.

I set the bag somewhere safe near the nest, where my mother wouldn't be able to yank it away and then stood guard along the area that connected the bedroom door to the nest. My mother wouldn't be able to get to the nest without me getting to her first.

What happened next was something I hadn't counted on.

An hour or so later, my bedroom door was flung open. My mother wasn't the only alpha there. 

Arthur and Francis' alpha parents came in as well. All of their omegas followed. 

Two alphas came to me with rope in their hands.

“Stay away from him, mother,” I yelled.

“This is wrong Alfred. I need to do this,” she told me, not meeting my eyes.

Mother, with the help of two of the omegas grabbed Mattie. My sweet mate was crying out, trying to wriggle away and further into his nest. His legs tried to kick out, ignoring my mothers command to stand down. She was no longer his alpha. I was. Mattie wouldn't listen to her.

The heat had weakened Mattie and he couldn't struggle very hard. 

“Alfie, help me,” he called tired from three days of heat and mating.

“Mattie! God no, leave him alone. Don't fucking touch him,” I screamed.

I had already been punching and kicking with all of my strength. Incomprehensible growls and snarls torn from my mouth. There was blood on my knuckles from where I'd punched Arthur's dad. They were older and stronger. I was also weakened from three days of little sleep.

They hadn't needed to struggle for long to get ropes wrapped around my wrists, bound behind me. Before long they'd also bound my ankles. Every word that dropped from my mouth was a string of nonsense words and curses. I tried to wriggle my body across the floor to the door that Mattie was being taken from.

“Alfie save me,” cried Mattie, far enough away that I could hardly hear him.

“No! Bring him back,” I called and felt my voice crackle with the shrill loudness of my scream.

The alphas dragged me from the room, away from the nest and placed me on my own bed. Then they left the room, locking the door behind them.

#

Locked in my room, tied so that I could barely move, was absolute hell for me. Not just because of being separated from my brother during his heat, though believe me when I tell you that the thought nearly killed me. A good part of my pain was due to being betrayed by my parents in such a way. 

I had almost convinced myself, in the days previous, that my mother and father would be able to see how Mattie and I loved each other. That they wouldn't do anything to harm either of their children. Especially not when Mattie was so helpless in his heat, being weakened in such a state. 

I had no way to express my anger and upset, so I screamed. I yelled and thrashed my body around until I fell off of my bed with a painful thud. The roars of my outrage still rang through the room, tearing at my throat until it ached. 

After several hours, once I'd been forced to calm down by my inability to yell any more, my mother came in the room. 

She stood tall, arms crossed over her chest and tried to unleash her dominant alpha pheromones. I scowled, throat too sore to speak to her. 

“This is for the best, Alfred,” she said, looking down at my still wriggling body on the floor.

My mouth had been so dry that I couldn't muster the liquid to spit at her. Oh how I'd wanted to. So I had to content myself with glaring at her and hoping that she'd burst into flames. Even if I found Mattie and never slept with him again or touched him in a sexual way, I would still love him deeply. He was, and always had been, my everything.

“I've been worried about this since you two were born. You were just so unnaturally close,” she said, shaking her head and pouting with fake sorrow, “Don't worry though. I will help you find an appropriate omega.”

Using every last ounce of my power, I flipped to face away from her. I couldn't handle seeing her one more moment and being unable to punch her. 

#

Later on, she sent in my father. He didn't untie me, but he did give me water and feed me.

Despite the fact that he'd been involved in the removal of my mate from me, I just couldn't muster up the ability to be overly cruel to him. Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I believe that one shouldn't ever raise their hand to an omega. Or in this case, spit their food all over them.

Not that it mean that I would speak to him. I remained resolutely silent, just as quiet as I knew that my Mattie would be. 

I wondered where he was and how he was faring. 

During one of my feedings, I mustered the words to speak to my father, “Where did they take him?”

Father look down at the floor and frowned. He shifted the spoon around in the soup for a minute or two before he said, “I can't tell you.”

I grit my teeth, “Please. You don't understand what he means to me. Even if I didn't choose this, he is my mate and I love him.”

Shaking his head, Father said, “No. This is for the best. They will cure him and you will find a more appropriate omega to be with.”

Nodding to himself as if he was making an internal commitment, Father stood up and walked to the door, “You'll understand some day son.”

“Never. I will never forgive you for this unless you help me find him.”

Father didn't turn around to near witness to my scrutiny. He walked out, the door closing with a quiet snick behind him.

I lay back down, body limp, in my rope bindings.

#

Three nights later, well after everybody had fallen asleep, I began to tug at my bindings once more. They were still so tight as my mother kept fixing them if I ever managed to loosen them. 

The reason why I was still straining was to make my skin bleed even more than they already were. 

My father desperately wanted to mend my wrists, bandage them up and keep them clean and free of infection. My mother decided to let me suffer in hopes that I would realize what happened to alphas who engaged in incestuous relationships. She figured it would make me reconsider her offers to find me a better mate. 

By then, all I was hoping for was to lubricate my bindings with blood so that I might be able to slip free. Of course I wasn't thinking properly with my alpha instincts screaming at me to find Mattie. If I had thought for long enough, I'd have realized that the blood would get sticky long before it would be a proper lubricant.

I hadn't been thinking though, so I continued to rub against the rope. 

I was so focused, in fact, that I didn't notice the window being cracked open until somebody was already inside and coming towards me. The person was darkened by the shadows in my room and my eyes were unfocused. 

As soon I heard the faint footsteps of another person, I bared my teeth, showing off my sharp alpha canines. I was just about to growl when a hand slapped over my mouth.

Just when I had been about to bite into the flesh of whoever had touched me, I heard a familiar voice. 

“Be quiet. I'm here to get you out,” said Arthur, staring down at me.

His body was quaking but his face remained calm. Down in the part of me that had still been able to think rationally, I felt bad for triggering Arthur's instinctive omega skittishness with my scent. I probably reeked of my dominating aura.

“Francis and I only just now had the chance to get free,” said Arthur just below a whisper.

He began to use a knife to saw at my bindings and said, “Our parents were watching us. They said some horrible things about the two of you. Francis and I tried to defend you and were locked inside out of fear that we'd try to help you.”

My mind slowly but surely cleared, just enough to see through the fog of absolute anger and misery. I also whispered, “Seems like they were right, since you're helping me get free.”

As the last of the ropes fell to the floor, I stood up.

“Grab only a few important items. We have maybe five or ten minutes,” said Arthur, already waiting by the window and making a hand gesture towards the ground outside and somebody who waited there.

I grabbed a few changes of clothes, a bit of whatever savings I had in my room, and some photos of Mattie and I as kids. Just as I was about to go to the window as well, I saw something from the corner of my eye. 

One of Mattie's old toys had migrated to my room. A tuft of old white fur poked out from under my bed and I grabbed it.

It was a toy polar bear that Mattie had been given as a toddler. He'd always loved it. 

I packed it as well. 

Arthur went out first, sliding out of the window to hang off of it and then falling the rest of the way down. We were only on the second floor, so the drop wasn't too hard. I did the same, wincing at the pain in my wrists. 

I nodded to Francis who was out there, presumably as a look out. 

Then we ran. Distantly I was aware of yelling from behind us as we dashed to Francis' car. I had no idea how he even got it out of his driveway without being noticed. All I knew was the sweet smell of freedom and being that much closer to finding Mattie. 

“Hop in quick,” said Francis, getting into the driver's seat of the car that wasn't very far away down the road.

I leapt in the backseat, gripping tight onto the seat in front of me. 

I saw headlights behind us flash a few times. 

“Shit they've found us. They're going to keep me from Mattie. They're going to trap me forever,” I yelled, hardly able to breath steadily and gripping the headrest in front of me so hard that my knuckles turned white.

Arthur got in the car beside me and grabbed a hold of my upper arm. He narrowed his eyes at me as Francis took off in the car, tires squealing.

“You need to focus if you want to get Matthew back. You will be not good to him if you are panicking like this,” he said to me, moving his hand to rub my back.

I still shook but I tried to relax my body. Having my back rubbed helped ease at least some of my muscles from being tied up for so long. Arthur only massaged the muscles in my upper back and shoulders, his fingers not lingering or trailing over my skin, but it still felt so good in a purely platonic and friendly way. It reassured me even, to know I had the support of my two closest friends. 

Not that what they had just done, to help me escape, hadn't been amazing. I knew, without the need to say it, that neither of my friends wouldn't be able to return home.

What Mattie and I were to each other was against the law. Arthur and Francis had just aided a criminal.

Eventually I leaned my head against Arthur's shoulder as we drove off into the night, falling into a restless sleep.

#

The next day I woke up laying by myself in the back seat, sun pounding down on my face. I wondered if it was going to burn.

I blinked my eyes open, wiping the crust out of them. I supposed that I'd needed the sleep after three days of no sleep. Still, I didn't feel very refreshed. My body ached from the uncomfortable sleeping position and my heart hurt from being away from my twin.

I clutched at the shirt over my chest. 

That was when I heard Francis and Arthur talking, “We can go to a library and do some research on places in the area he might be.”

I coughed to clear my throat and then said, “My father said something about somebody curing Mattie.”

Arthur and Francis looked back at nearly the same time. Francis handed me a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

Arthur blinked back at me a few times before he finally said, "Do you think that they...?"

Trailing off, he bit his bottom lip and went back to looking forward, out of the car's windshield.

"What?" I asked, probably with a bit too much attitude, considering all that my friends had just done to help me out.

Francis sighed and met Arthur's eyes before he looked back at me and then said, "Your parents probably had Matthew sent to one of those asylums."

My jaw hung slack and my stomach dropped. I felt the blood drain from my face and became very cold.

"There's no way that my parents hated us that much," I said, shaking my head furiously, "Those places are supposed to be hell-holes."

"Well where else would they have taken him to 'have him cured'," said Arthur, drumming his fingers impatiently along the arm rest on the car door.

"I don't know," I said, forcing myself not to yell as I desperately wanted to, "They'll kill him. Oh god we have to save him."

Francis shook his head, "It is not that easy. We will have to think of a plan."

#

Of course a plan ended up being to sit in the car as it was parked across the street from the huge and menacing grey building out in the middle of the woods. There was nary a tree in sight along the browning grass of the lawn inside, despite the trees outside of the fence. The windows were barred up and covered with thick black curtains. It was like the home of a vampire. The worst thing about the place was the huge wall that surrounded it all, with sharp barbs at the top.

I wanted out of the car. My hand was on the door handle for the tenth time that hour.

"It already took us three days to find out which town this place was and three days to drive here. Mattie has been in this hellhole for probably about six days by now. Six days, nine away from me in total. I have to save him," I said, trying to keep my voice calm despite the rapid pounding of my heart. 

“You can't just storm in there, as much as I'm sure you'd like to,” said Arthur, looking through a pair of binoculars and at the building, as if he was going to see something.

“Well how else are we going to do this. I have to try,” I said, whipping open the door and getting out.

As soon as I stood up, I was face to face with the barrel of a gun.

“What the hell?” I cried out, caught off guard.

“Who are you?” demanded the man in front of me in a thick accent.

It sounded Chinese. Or Japanese. I knew it was one of the two but I hadn't heard either one enough to know the difference.

He was short with long dark hair, tied back in a pony tail. Angry brown eyes glared at me from over the gun. His clothes were all green and he had a knife strapped to his boot.

Arthur and Francis also got out of the car but the man's gun stayed on me, pressed closer even, until it touched my skin.

I growled with bravado I shouldn't have felt, given the circumstance I'd found myself in, and said, “None of your business.”

The man smacked me over the head with the gun, enough to hurt but not knock me out. My upper lip twitched in a snarl. I'd already on edge from being away from Mattie. That had been more than enough to send me spiralling over into a rage.

Francis and Arthur stood on both sides of me and held my arms to prevent me from jumping.

From behind the man I heard a female voice, “Yao? What's going on?”

A woman came into view. She also had a thick accent. Everything that she wore appeared to be some kind of traditional clothing. Also, strangely enough, she carried a...boat paddle?

“Chung Lien, get back to the camp,” said Yao, not looking back.

The woman, Chung Lien, kept her face impassive and ventured closer, “Who are they?”

“That's what I'm trying to figure out. Leave it to me,” said Yao.

Arthur, deciding to be the one to acted diplomatically, cleared his throat and said, “We are here to visit the asylum.”

Both newcomers gave them very interested looks.

Chung Lien said, “You have put somebody in there?”

The woman ran her hand up the boat paddle, gripping it and looked as if her were about to try to swing it at us.

I bared my teeth at her and spit out the words, “I would never have willingly imprisoned my own mate.”

Francis sighed from beside me with clear exasperation, “Great. The cat is out of the bag now.”

Arthur also groaned.

However it seemed that I had given the right answer, somehow, because Yao lowered the gun and put the safety back on. The woman leaned on her paddle.

“Well then. That changes things. Come back to our camp, I believe that I may be able to help you,” said Yao, turning around but keeping the gun in his hand that hung to his side, “But drive your car away first. I will show you where to take it.”

#

After Francis drove the car a mile or so away, we all walked through the forest. It seemed that Yao knew it like the back of his hand.

We arrived, eventually at a camp of several tents. It was getting towards night by that time, so there was a fire going with food being cooked atop it. There were thick slabs of wood and some large rocks to sit on around the fire. The three of us were sat down and bowls of wieners and beans were set on our laps. 

Yao, who had looked down at the bowl of beans with a disgusted look on his face, set aside his food and stood up once more to speak, “I'm an alpha. My mate is in that asylum. He's a giant Russian omega named Ivan. He was taken into custody when we arrived here in this country for work. They thought there was something wrong with his mind, to be an omega and look so obviously like an alpha. That he'd be a threat to society.”

He sat down and Chung Lien spoke, “I'm obviously an alpha as well. My mate's name is Xiao Mei. She is also an alpha. We came with Yao to America, since I am a close cousin, and were also taken. I escaped but my mate did not. Two alphas are apparently not supposed to be fated mates.”

The next person spoke, “I'm Emil. I'm an omega, as is my mate. He is Li Xiao Chun, the younger brother of Yao. He is in there as well.”

Five others introduced themselves to us, including one other alpha from a separated pair of fated twins. All of them had similar stories. Society had deemed their relationships as immoral.

Yao took over once all of the introductions has been made, “We are in this forest, camped out, in order to get our mates back. However whenever we meet a new person trying to get inside, it is already too late. The guards know their faces and take pictures so nobody forgets and lets them in. Nobody cares about us now that we don't have our mates. As long as we don't go into the asylum. We move around the forest so we aren't ever seen.”

Arthur rested his hands primly on his lap and said, “So where do we come in? How are you supposing that we help with all this?”

“Because you haven't tried to break in yet, they will open the gates for you.”

I shook my head, “My parents know I'm gone. They've probably warned the place.”

Chung Lien said, “My bet is that they still open the door for you, even if just to get you inside and keep you in there. Until somebody can bring you elsewhere, especially if you go in there with the idea of 'getting help' yourself.”

“How does this help anybody escape?” asked Francis, looking down into his bowl of food and poked at it with the fork he'd been given.

Yao said, “There are two doors in order to get in passed the gates. You go through one, they close the outside doors fully and then open the interior. You will go up to the gate and buzz it, saying that you are sick and need help. Once they open the outside gate, I will jam it so that it looks mostly closed but can still be pried open.”

Chung Lien nodded, “Once they open the interior gate for you then you shoot the guard.”

I saw Arthur blanch and stammer, “K-kill someone? I don't know about that.”

If it had been any other time and any other situation, I would have also refused. I would have claimed that committing such a crime was against the moral code of a hero. That was before I'd been ripped apart from Mattie during his heat. Torn from him and had him thrown into a place where who knew what was done to him.

A protective alpha can be capable of many things.

Murder was one of them. And I knew I could, since my mother had taught me how to shoot when she'd taken me hunting as a child.

“I'll do it,” I said, looking firm as Francis and Arthur gaped at me.

~ = = Present = =~

Alfred sat down onto his seat at the dinner table when the last words of what would be that chapter were finished. The other guests clapped, but a sombre mood had descended. Alfred couldn't help but think to himself that he had warned them that it wasn't happy.

Never-the-less, they all gave him compliments. 

His chest swelled with nerves and he took a great big sip of a wine that had been put in front of him.

His chest hurt from the nerves.

He could hardly breath.

He began to sweat.

Mattie, by then, had noticed and asked what was wrong.

All Alfred could get out was a heavily slurred, “Love you.”

And then he blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just do that? Two cliff-hangers in the same chapter? :D Yes, yes I did. *dodges throwing knives*


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> D: So sorry for being late with this. I was so sick that I didn't have the energy to sit. I spent the better part of a week sleeping. 
> 
> When you see an asterisk * in the text it refers to an author's note.
> 
> *Duangua. I know this is what Hong Kong's top is called. However Matthew doesn't know this, and as such calls it a tunic since that is the closest word he can think of that fits what he was thinking at the time.
> 
> I don't know much about Chinese names. I tried to look up what I could on the subject. With Hong Kong's name Li Xiao Chun, I assume Li is his family name and Xiao Chun are his given names. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. ^_^;;

Chapter Seven

 

~ = = Present Day = = ~

Curling up on the ratty, old chair that the hospital had found for him, Matthew stared over at the bed in the middle of the private room.

Prone and looking more helpless than he'd ever been before, Alfred lay in a coma. His skin was pale and he just seemed so small even though he was still the burly alpha that he'd always been.

Once more, Matthew felt the burn of tears springing to his eyes and he had to stare down at the floor. He was good at comforting others, but when it came to his own emotions, he had no idea what to do and how to act.

Matthew had cried so much in the past forty eight hours that he wasn't sure if there were any more tears left.

Alfred had a heart attack. A bad one that resulted in cardiac arrest.

Thank goodness that he'd been at a dinner party full of all sorts of doctors. The hostess herself had a defibrillator in her home. She'd had the equipment to show at an event for young teens interested in pursuing a medical career. She and her wife didn't have heart problems or even a family history of them, so would have otherwise not needed one in the house.

If she hadn't had it on hand, Matthew didn't know what would have happened.

Well, that wasn't true. Matthew had an extremely high IQ. He knew darn well what would have happened. What mattered was that Alfred was alive now, even if he wasn't awake.

Matthew couldn't let himself think about that any more. He couldn't.

Instead, he picked up the laptop that he usually used for work.

Matthew had transferred all of Alfred's chapters of the book onto it when he'd popped home for a change of clothes. Then he had written out chapter six, since he'd been there to hear how Alfred would have written it.

That was when he'd set down the computer to take a break.

Truthfully? The next chapter was going to be very hard for him to write or even think about.

But this was what Alfred had so desperately wanted him to write. Matthew could do this for Alfred, even if he had to cry several times while writing it.

It was the least he could do, since he'd failed his mate by not seeing the signs of symptoms of a heart attack sooner. Matthew was a medical professional for crying out loud. He felt terrible that he'd overlooked his own alpha's health somehow.

Letting his fingers fly expertly over the keyboard, Matthew began to write. 

~ = = Past – Matthew Writing = = ~

Being taken away from Alfred right after my first heat was a fog of suffering and suffocating fear. Every part of me craved the comfort of my nest and the warmth of my alpha. My heat hadn't ceased just because I'd been torn from my mate. 

I was still longing to be penetrated and filled with a knot.

That wasn't to be, since I had been tied up and placed in the back of a car. It smelled like the vehicle that was owned by Francis' parents. I knew their smell so keenly since I'd known them all of my life. I couldn't believe that they would help my parents do this. They'd even gagged me to avoid hearing my moans of need and my cries of anguish.

After so many hours of laying in one position, gag hurting my jaw, the silence in the car had finally broken. Francis' mother turned in her seat and looked at me.

“We are paying for your stay at the asylum. They will help you get better. We simply couldn't let you and your dear brother go to prison for your crimes,” she said, her french accent thick, and smiled while she stroked my hair, “This will be a much better alternative, non?”

I disagreed. I hated both options. I wanted my mate.

The one driving the car was not Francis' father but Arthur's mother. They eventually stopped to feed me and give me water. I was too weak to try to escape with my hands and legs still bound. I doubted that I would have been able to escape even if I'd hadn't been restrained. My arms and legs were noodles and I was in pain.

At least they eventually draped a blanket, pulled out from the trunk of the car, over my shivering form so that I could attempt to find some semblance of sleep. 

# 

The drive only lasted a day.

I woke up from the half sleep that I'd fallen into when the car slowed to a stop. Both omegas got out but I couldn't see from my position of laying to know where I was. All I saw were wide open blue skies with the occasional puffy cloud floating by.

I heard muffled speech and the two women speaking to somebody with a deep voice. They all drew closer to me and as soon as the car door was opened with a clunk I smelled it.

An alpha, big and burly, reached into the car to fish me out. There was another alpha near him, almost as muscular as the first one. Their scent was putrid to me when all I wanted was my own alpha. Weakly I tried to wriggle away but I was dragged out with rough movements, my head smacking onto the frame of the car door on the way out before the other alpha grabbed me around my shoulders.

I hear Arthur and Francis' mothers protest in the background but had been too focused on what had been happening to me to tell what they'd said.

The alpha by my head grumbled, “This boy is a sexual deviant. Rough treatment is the only way to fix him.”

I didn't get to hear how the omegas responded, because I was thrown into the back of a van. My shoulder hit the hard metal and pain spiked through my body. One of the alphas started the van and the other sat beside me.

He sat and stared at me, cool and with a sneer on his lips, curving them in a way that was almost grotesque. I looked away and down to the particles of dirt on the floor of the moving vehicle. 

Sharp pain radiated through my scalp when the man grabbed a hold of my hair and yanked me up to look at him, “I hate your kind. You aberrant freaks of nature.”

He spat in my face, the rapidly cooling saliva sliding down my cheek and making me feel like throwing up. His large hand smacked over the clean side of my face, causing me to cry out. I'd never been physically struck in such a way before. I'd always had either Alfred, Arthur or Francis to help me if I couldn't talk my way out of a confrontation. 

It hurt and brought a tear to my eyes that beaded up and over the rim of eyelids. 

The man chuckled and said, “You are in for quite the time, little omega, if that alone was enough to make you cry.”

And then he sat back, taking out a cigarette and lighting it, filling the back of the van with the harsh smoke of the cheap tobacco.

#

Understandably, I was unable to fall into any sort of sleep. Even as my eyes burned and their lids drooped dangerously, I refused to allow myself sleep.

Every part of me was terrified to being take advantage of. My heat still rolled over my body, though it had been slowly ebbing away. I had heard of unmated alphas taking omegas who were unguarded and in heat. Such a thing wasn't common practice, since it was highly regarded as despicable. However the situation I had found myself in was far from common and I hadn't known what to expect.

I thought, at the very least, that it wasn't normal to tie up a helpless omega and drag them who knows where. 

After a day and a half, my mouth dry and tongue feeling swollen from lack of water, we arrived at our destination. 

I couldn't see outside of the van, it's windows blacked out, so I had no idea of our arrival until the vehicle stopped and the back doors were flung open.

Another couple more alphas were there, batons at their waist. A woman in a long white coat and a name badge over her left side, also stood between them and looked down at me. I figured that she was a doctor or a nurse. 

“Welcome to our facility,” she said, drawing a needle from out of her long white jacket.

She tapped the sides of the syringe, depressing the plunger enough that a squirt of the faintly blue liquid within sprayed into the air.

“This,” she explained to me and she knelt in front of me, “Will make it so that you don't struggle. Don't worry. You will still feel everything. Feeling pain is part of your recovery.”

The doctor got the alphas to untie me. I squirmed away immediately, feeling the painful scrape of tiny stones in my skin, breaking it open. She gestured at the burly men and they pinned my arms down.

She wrapped a strip of black rubber around my upper arm, so tight it felt like it would cut my arm in two. Then she felt around for a vein, far more gently than the circumstances seemed to warrant, and stuck the needle into my skin. With the pain I'd felt before, the prick of the syringe had been nothing. I barely winced. 

Within moments, my body weakened. Every limb was weighted a thousand times. Breathing was harder to manage as my chest felt heavier.

She patted my head as if I were a child and said, “Not to fret. Once you've been here for a while, you shouldn't need the medicine.”

Her words were so ominous that I knew, were I able, that I would have shivered. 

#

I was placed in a single large room upon a cot. The material of the cot was rough and itchy and didn't have a sheet. No blanket was placed over me, though I saw one folded up at the end of the bed. 

The room was painted grey and there were no windows. I had been sure that we were in a basement as the air held a faint dampness to it. Bare light bulbs were on the ceiling, covered only by a cage, presumably to avoid somebody using the glass to hurt themselves or a guard. There were other cots in the room, as well as a small, open concept living space at the other end.

As soon as the door swung shut and locked with a snick, a large man wandered over to me. He was super tall, had silver hair, and eyes that were violet like mine. He wore a large swath of fabric around his neck that looked like it was supposed to be a scarf, though it was obviously ripped from a bed sheet.

I wanted to wriggle away from the burly man whose child-like smile creeped me out. I was still weakened from whatever the doctor had injected into me though, and had to lay and await my fate.

“Hello new friend,” said the man in a voice that seemed far softer than it should, considering the sheer size of the giant.

That was when I smelled it. This man wasn't an alpha at all but an omega.

Then the omega knelt beside the cot, which was rather low to the ground, and smiled even wider. The other omega's expression had still creeped me out, but I was put more at ease at knowing his orientation. 

“Hello,” I managed to whisper with a tinge of breathlessness to the words.

“I am Ivan,” said the man with a heavy accent that I didn't recognize. I hadn't heard of the name   
'Ee-vahn' before. It sounded sort of like Ivan (Eye-Van).

“Ivan?” I asked as I unknowingly mangled how to say his name.

He shook his head and repeated his name the way he had originally pronounced it. I said it again and got an enthusiastic nod. 

“So what are you here for?” asked Ivan, sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking for all intents and purposes like a submissive omega. 

I frowned and looked away. I nibbled my lower lip. I didn't know how much to say so I chose not to speak at all. As soon as I glanced in that direction, I saw a young man make his way towards me. He was obviously an omega and smelled like it when I caught his scent. 

This man was smaller and had choppy brown hair with a stoic expression. He wore a burgundy top that looked like a tunic* trimmed with black. He wore only boxer shorts under those and I thought that they didn't match the rather nice top. I wondered what happened to his pants but then decided that I didn't wish to know after all.

“It's okay. We're all omegas here. The alphas are kept at the other end of the facility,” said the young man with an odd accent. From my long association with Arthur and his family, I recognized a tinge of English accent in the young man's voice. 

The omega continued, “Ivan looks scarier than he actually is. I am Li Xiao Chun. Call me Xiao Chun or just Xiao.”

“Oh, Hello Xiao,” I said, looking at the ceiling, since I couldn't run, looking away seemed like the best alternative.

“If it helps, we are all here because we are mated in a way deemed immoral or illegal. I am an omega who is mated to another omega,” said Li Xiao Chun, perching delicately on the edge of my bed, his hands hidden within his huge sleeves. 

Ivan piped up, seeming to have an endless supply of cheerfulness despite the horrid conditions of the place we were forced into.

“I was put here because your government thought I was a freak for being an omega and having a tiny and cute little alpha mate,” said Ivan, leaning forward towards me.

Li Xiao Chun snorted but his face didn't show any sort of change in emotions, “Don't let Yao hear you call him cute. He'll box your ears for that.”

I looked between the two omegas and then said, “You knew each other before you came here?”

The smaller of the two nodded and said, “His alpha is my cousin.”

“Oh,” I said.

Some of the other omegas in the room came forth and told me why they were there. There were seven others in total. One of them was even a fated twin.

I held my breath and let it out in one long stream of air before I said, “My parents caught my twin brother, my alpha, with me.”

Ivan nodded, “I smell traces of your heat still.”

A blushed at those words. 

Li Xaio Chun looked about to speak, with his mouth opened to do so, when the door opened.

All of the omegas scattered at once to their own cots. 

There were only three guards, armed with batons, as well as the doctor who remained unarmed. I wondered how they kept rule, being so outnumbered by the omegas in the room. Nobody else but me seemed to be drugged.

Two of the guards grabbed me, one on each side of me, holding me under my arms. I dangled between them helplessly and saw Xiao give me a pitying look. Even giant Ivan looked away and into a corner.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked quietly, eyes blown so wide that I could feel it.

"Therapy," said the doctor cheerfully, leading us all down a long hallway.

I hoped in vain that 'therapy' meant sitting on a couch and talking about my feelings. However even I wasn't so naive as to really believe that.

I brought into a small room, damp like the living quarters and smelling faintly metallic. There was a large rectangular table in the centre, with straps where I imagined that hands and feet would go.

"Please no," I said, unable to muster the volume to scream amidst my fear, "Please just let me go, I haven't done anything wrong."

My pleas were ignored as I was placed on the table. My head was at the end and beside a shelf. On it were several different types of surgical tools, gleaming silver and very sharp. All kinds of needles and vials lined the shelves.

Once I was strapped in, the doctor lifted a single angled blade. She lifted it in front of one of her own eyes and looked at her reflection.

"This is one of my favourite therapy knives," she said wistfully, her eyes nearly black, which I was sure matched her heart, "I think, once you've seen the error of your ways, that you will agree with me."

And then she sunk the blade into my skin, just so.

#

My throat was raw from screaming by the time I'd been dragged back and all but tossed onto my cot.

My wounds had been hastily wrapped, covering nearly my entire body. The 'good doc' had disinfected the injuries that she had inflicted with a surgical precision. I had long lost count of all of the places she had sliced into my skin. Thankfully it was only my skin she had cut.

If, of course, dumping pure alcohol into my wounds could be considered disinfecting and not simply another means of torture.

I closed my eyes and tried to slow my breathing. I needed to try to find calm through my incredible pain. I had no idea how.

I felt a hand under my head on one side and a hand at my shoulder. My eyes flew open and I tried to wiggle away as best as I could.

"It is just us friend," said Ivan at my shoulders.

Xiao Chun held a plastic cup with water to my lips. The cup was slightly dingy and the water was harsh but it felt sweet going down on my parched throat.

"I am sorry that there was nothing we could do," said Xiao "Anybody who tries to rebel against the guards gets harsher therapy."

“More than slicing up my skin into ribbons?” I asked, thinking that my torture had surely been one of the worst.

I had been knowledgeable in things that I could find in a textbook, mostly related to science. I knew next to nothing of the ways of torture. It had never been my area of interest. Simply put, I was naive. 

The fact that nobody answered my question should have been telling enough.

That night I fell asleep, alone, on my cot. I hadn't had the chance to feel my twin's warmth against me at night for long but I missed it already. I craved it and longed for Alfred to come and help me through my pain.

I wondered where he was and if my parents would send him to a place like this as well.

I cried myself to sleep that night and from the muffled sobs throughout the room, I had not been the only one who did so.

#

My life became a whirlwind of pain and suffering. Each and every day I was taken and forced to endure some form of miserable torture. 

All in the name of healing, of course.

I won't go into details of what I endured. For one, I am hazy when it comes to what happened since I am fairly certain that my mind has blocked a lot of it out. Second, I often panic when I think to hard of the torture.

So instead, I will speak of what else I can recollect.

For instance, there were two other 'doctors' in the facility, aside from the one I'd already seen. All three of them were utterly and completely insane. I wasn't sure why they thought that making somebody suffer would change their orientation or to whom they were mated. 

I couldn't have changed my mate even if I wanted to. I didn't wish to though. I still wanted Alfred. Nothing that I knew of would ever change that. 

I did, however, find myself able to think less and less about my twin brother. That was not out of unwillingness but incapability to think of much else except for my pain.

When I slid in and out of consciousness, I overheard the omegas talk about the upstairs. It seemed that there was an actual psychiatric hospital upstairs. They didn't seem to know how they were treated up there. The omegas had the consensus that the doctors took out their psychotic tendencies on us. And why not? Nobody except our mates cared where we were.

That was why we were sent to that hell hole to begin with. I couldn't help but think, in the deepest dark of my suffering, that prison would have at least killed me quickly. 

In any case, I hadn't been in the state of mind to muse on the subject for very long. The omegas helped me when they could since they seemed to be prepared to do so. Newcomers always had it worse it seemed.

Days flew by with no Alfred. No parents coming in admitting to their mistake.

I became a shadow just as the last caress of light slipped away from the world, covering everything in darkness. Shrouding me. 

Burying me. 

I heard the voices, soft kind ones, talk about something that had happened before. Some omegas couldn't cope with the torture. I wondered if they meant me. At least they didn't seem to scorn me. They brushed the hair off my forehead while they said it and mopped at my face with a cool rag.

“Alfie?” I asked feebly, eyes bound with layers of bandages. 

I forget why my eyes had been injured and I don't want to remember. Thinking about it made my chest constrict. 

A tender voice of Xiao Chun said, “No. I'm sorry.”

I retreated into myself.

I was lost.

#

~ = = Present = = ~

Matthew saved the document and slowly pressed the lid of the laptop closed. 

His breathing was faster than normal and his cheeks felt wet. Gingerly he reached up to feel at his face and found that his fingertips came away wet. He was crying. Again.

Setting aside his computer, Matthew walked around the bed in the middle of the room to grab one of the tissues. He dabbed at his face and cleaned himself up.

It wouldn't be good for Alfred to wake up to Matthew being distraught. Not that he wouldn't be upset anyway, but Matthew found himself unable to reason fully. 

He sat beside the bed of his lover and danced his touch lightly over Alfred's too pale face. It was skin that was meant to be flushed with excitement. His eyes were meant to be open with a shine of childish joy.

Matthew lay his head down beside his alpha's arm and took and deep and steadying breath. 

He was unsure if he could do this. It was too hard to see his lover laying helpless.

A knock broke him out of his melancholy.

Matthew turned his head, though he still kept it on the bed, and looked to see who was there. 

It was his secretary Emily, her blonde hair tied in a messy bun atop her head. She gave a sad smile and came in.

“I – I don't know what to say Matthew,” she said, wringing her hands, “But I brought along two people who might be able to help you better than I could.”

In walked Francis and Arthur. They both had black rings under their eyes and had clearly rushed to get there. Matthew had sworn they had been on vacation.

As if reading his mind, Francis said, “Of course we came as soon as we heard. Our daughter told us right away.”

Arthur gave Emily a warm, “Thank you for bringing us here princess.”

Francis put a hand on the woman's shoulder and said, “You can go home now mon chaton. We have things from here.”

Emily nodded but went up to me anyway, “I'm here for you too Uncle Matthew. I'll cook you a whole weeks worth of meals for when you go back home. Just tell me what you need and when and my mate and I will be there.”

“Thank you,” said Matthew, touched. 

Emily hadn't called him Uncle in ages. When he had started work in Matthew's office, she decided to keep things completely professional when it came to names. That was years ago of course, and both of them had grown used to calling each other 'Matthew', and, 'Emily'. Especially since she had accompanied him as an assistant to a few conferences. Professionalism was most important in those settings. 

Emily gave him one last nod before she left the room.

Francis flung his arms around Matthew and drew him close, “What do you need us to do? Please tell us.”

Arthur rounded the other side of the bed and ran a hand through Alfred's hair, “It hardly looks like him, all covered in wires.”

Matthew, still not really feeling like talking, just rested his head on Francis' shoulder and watched Arthur.

“Did you know that this ninny sent me one of those text messages things about the story he was writing?”

Matthew shook his head.

Though of course he knew that Arthur and Alfred texted. Alfred loved to keep up with technology as best as he could. So naturally he was forever sending text messages to people, many of whom were as advanced in age as the two of them, and as such couldn't reply nearly as fast as Alfred seemed to be able. Even Matthew took a while to poke out his replies on the tiny on-screen keyboard that his phone had.

Arthur, at least, was much better at using phones than Francis, who absolutely refused to pick up any sort of phone that didn't have a cord on it. 

“If you don't mind, I'd like to contribute to the story,” said Arthur, asking quietly as he stared down upon his long-time friend laying in a coma.

“Yes. I think I would like that,” said Matthew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if anybody remembers Emily from the first chapter, or felt that she may be important, but she is the child of Arthur and Francis. :)
> 
> I hope that you all don't mind that I skipped out on describing the torture type scenes. It was a hard decision to make because I like horror. Ultimately I decided that it was best left vague.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took forever and for good reason. It's a whopping 6000 words.
> 
> I really hope that I wrote Arthur's voice as distinctive enough from Alfred and Matthew. It was harder than I thought it would be but a nice challenge ^_^
> 
> Anyway, this chapter has blood and minor character death in it. Really, it's pretty dark.

Chapter Eight

~ = = Past – Arthur Writing = = ~

I, Arthur Bonnefoy-Kirkland, will tell you about my experiences while Matthew had been imprisoned in that awful asylum.

At the time, of course, I had yet to take my mate's last name. I had yet to even hold a mating ceremony with him. The two of us had only recently discovered that we were each others fated mate when Matthew and Alfred's relationship was discovered. 

Francis and I had pretty much expected the two of them to be mates as soon as we smelled each others delectable scents. One would, perhaps, think the idea of two siblings being mates as repulsive. To be honest, I found it a bit strange at first. However the more I mused over the idea, the more I realized it was the most natural thing in the world for the two of them.

Now don't get me wrong, I do not, nor would I ever, condone incest in any other circumstance. For me though, it's different for Matthew and Alfred. Does this make me a hypocrite?

Perhaps.

Regardless, I have long since come to terms with my feelings on the matter. It hadn't taken me very long to do so to be honest. So it is really of no issue.

Back then, as I waited in the forest, just in sight of the asylum, I watched my best friend nearly lose his mind out of panic for his mate. Alfred paced as well as he could over the uneven and root covered forest floor, his blue eyes wide and wild. The fact that our new acquaintance, Yao, was soon to put a gun in Alfred's hand frightened me if I was to tell the truth.

I felt Francis' hand on my shoulder and I spun around to stare at the man who was technically my alpha. He was biting his lower lip and his hands shook. 

“What if something goes wrong?” asked Francis, his voice low and scared, “I don't want to lose you.”

My cupped the cheek of my silly alpha and pulled him down for a chaste kiss, “I won't let anything happen to you or myself. Please don't worry.”

Francis let out a trembling laugh, “I suppose I shouldn't. Alfred is doing enough worrying for the both of us.”

“Indeed,” I said and watched as Yao pulled Alfred aside and put a gun in the other alpha's hands. 

Alfred nodded solemnly and slid the weapon into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. 

Yao stepped up onto a rock between all of the gathered people and cleared his throat, calling for attention, “Does everybody remember their role in this?”

Various grunts and calls of affirmation were the response. Everyone had been full of nerves, most of them excited to see their mates and nervous about their plan not working. Or at least that was what I imagined. I'd never been the greatest at reading in depth emotions.

I took a deep breath to gather my courage and then approached Alfred. I felt a hand slap onto my shoulder from behind and I twisted my lips into a snarl.

As long as no actual alpha pheromones were released in anger, my own fearful instincts would not be set off. That made it so that I almost always had a relatively dominant attitude and wouldn't hesitate to talk back to an alpha.

It was just Yao behind me though, handing me a gun, prodding me with it's black handle. 

“Take it. Just in case. Prying the door open to give you backup won't be instantaneous and it's best to be prepared,” said Yao.

“I don't know,” I said, not touching the gun.

For all of my aggressive displays, I had been very hesitant to actually harm another living person if I could help it. Deep down, omegas were built to care and heal, so I didn't want to actually hurt somebody if I could help it.

Francis darted over to me and pecked my cheek, “If you had it, I would feel much better. S'il vous plaît?”

I had been about to refuse the gun, simply because I really didn't like even holding one. However the insufferable prat who dared call himself my mate widened his eyes and tears sprung to them as if magic.

Shit! I had always been helpless in the wake of the power of Francis' stupid pleading eyes. 

“Fine!” I said, grabbing the gun and stowing it in my jacket, “But I'm not happy about it.”

The tears that had once been about to fall from Francis' eyes dried up and were gone, a smile curving his sinfully plump lips. I looked away and to the large building that loomed in the distance to distract myself from my mate. 

Alfred grumbled from beside us,”Let's do this.”

#

I pressed the button at the side of the gate with a steady hand, my free hand clenching the fluffy collar of Alfred's jacket. He was pretending to lean away from me, as if I'd managed to over-power him and drag him in. Alfred, before we approached the gate, had smeared dirt over himself and ruffled his hair and clothes to look as if he'd been in a struggle and running for a while. I had decided to do the same. 

A crackling voice came over the intercom and said, “Yeah, who is it?”

I responded, “My name's Ian Bragg. I'm here to bring in an alpha who clearly needs help.”

That fake name just came out by itself. It took all I had to not smirk at my own deviousness.

“We aren't a charity. This is a privately own company. You got cash?” said the guard, sounding bored.

“Yes.”

The gate opened and the guard's voice buzzed over the intercom, “Come in there so we can take a look at you.”

We went through with me tugging on Alfred and him whining that he was tired and sore. With my free hand I held up some money that Yao had given me to hold up, expecting the question about cash. Neither of us were dumb enough to look behind us to see how Yao was planning on jamming the door open. It was dark, so we hoped that nobody would see that it wouldn't be closed all the way. 

A small slit in the middle of the inner gate opened and a guard got a good look at the two of us. I waved the cash a bit to make sure that he saw it. 

“Alright,” said the man, opening the inner gate.

Once it was all the way open and the two of us stepped through, Alfred went to work. As if possessed, I watched him draw out a gun and take aim. He pulled the trigger.

Having seen the flash of metal in the dimly lit outdoor area, the guard jumped to the side just in time to be hit in the shoulder. The man let out a sharp cry of pain and drew out his baton with his uninjured arm.

I stepped back to watch, not really feeling I had a place between one on one combat with one party wielding a firearm. That was how I saw two men approach Alfred from behind. They'd been hidden in a small control room built into the huge wall. 

“Alfred watch out,” I called out too late.

He'd been hit over the head and feel to his knees in pain. I saw a brief glimpse of blood under his hand as it clutched his hair.

Shit, shit, shit.

I pulled out the gun that I'd been given and, with clammy, trembling hands, cocked it and took aim. They were closing in on me and fast while the third man went after Alfred. 

I pulled the trigger once, twice. My mind had been focused on trying to survive and my vision grew tunnelled. I hit one man on his arm and missed the other. The uninjured guard smashed the baton into my arm, the pain sharp and tearing a gasp from my throat. 

Sucking in a deep breath, I focused every ounce of willpower I could muster and whipped the gun around to shoot at my attacker.

Point blank range at the man's forehead.

He was so close to me that a fine mist of crimson landed on my outstretched hand. The man crumpled to the ground hard.

I had killed a person. Robbed a body of it's life. 

Without thinking of the other guards in the area, I ran off to the side and threw up so hard that my face hurt. I heard a commotion from behind me and hoped that I wasn't about to be killed or imprisoned, but my body had been adamant about ridding my stomach of it's contents. 

When I felt a hand on my shoulder I had been about to spin around with my fists, since I'd dropped my gun somewhere along the lines, but I smelled the smooth scent of Francis. 

He held out a tissue, which I took and wiped off the sick from around my lips. We exchanged a brief glance before Yao, after plucking keys off of one of the guard's corpses, said, “We need to get moving again.” 

The three guards had been taken out, as well as three more who had come out to see what was going on. 

As a group, we went right inside of the building. The path we walked on to the front doors had been overgrown with weeds and barely used. I suspected that the entrance we headed for was scarcely used. The building had been probably converted from some other type of institution. Perhaps a secret government facility? It seemed built well enough that it could have been, and far enough in the middle of nowhere as well.

This is, of course, me remembering details of the night that I filed away in my mind but didn't dwell on. At the time I was trying not to think about how I'd just committed murder and might have to do so again. Francis was by my side though, and it was a comfort. 

The front doors already had seven guards standing by and waiting for us. Most of them had guns, but Yao and his group did as well. I watched in awe as his group easily shot the guards first and without hesitation or even missing. It really had been that massive fence that kept them out.

Once the guards stopped coming, Yao kicked in the door to one of the offices. In there was a scared omega in a white lab coat holding out a scalpel in front of himself as if that would protect him.

Yao looked as if he was about to make the first move, shifting in place, but Alfred beat him to it. With a wave of aggression and a loud snarl filling the room, Alfred stormed to the small doctor and grabbed his hair. When I caught a sight of my friend's face, it seemed wholly unfamiliar to me. His face had been twisted with rage and his eyes were alight with fire. 

“Where is my mate?” said Alfred, his voice sounding far less dangerous than his actions belied. 

He almost sounded calm.

Shrieking out and clawing at Alfred's hand in his hair, the doctor said, “I d-don't know.”

Alfred shook the man and I decided to step up to him. 

Despite what had happened to Matthew, I still felt sick for all of the murder I had witnessed. I had fallen into some sort of emotionally hardened shock like state. In the pit of my stomach, I still felt queasy. Giving into my baser instincts to curl into a ball and cry was not an option. I had to keep calm.

“Alfred, You need to keep your head. This man may have not done anything wrong, and he certainly doesn't look as if he can do much harm,” I said to my friend and patted his upper arm.

Whirling around to face me, Alfred yelled right in my face, “But what if he did hurt Mattie?”

Logically I knew that Alfred wasn't in the right frame of mind to be trying to keep his cool, but neither was I. I had just committed murder, an act that made me feel like a criminal of the worst kind. I was not in the greatest mood either, so having the friend, for whom I'd given up my entire life, yell at me? 

Not. Going. To. Happen.

Before he could do anything, I slapped him hard and right across his cheek, “Don't take that tone with me after all Francis and I have been doing to help you.”

The haze of his hormones fell away enough for him to get a momentary look of clarity and seemed a tad ashamed of his actions, “Sorry Artie.”

“Damn right you're sorry. Now you need to keep calm in order to save Matthew.”

He nodded.

I patted his shoulder and said, “Good then.”

The small doctor would have vibrated across the room from all of his quaking, had Alfred not had a firm grip still in his hair. Still, the man said, “Y-y-you have a mate downstairs? I-I'm an assistant and though I've never been allowed down there, I know w-where it is.”

The man flinched away from Alfred and heaved a sigh of relief that was short-lived. Alfred let go of of the guy's hair, only to spin the assistant around and jam the gun hard between his shoulder blades.

“Walk,” demanded Alfred. 

We went out of the door, passing an impressed Yao.

"You are a natural at this," said Yao, "You should make a career out of this sort of thing."

Alfred still held the gun on the assistant, but looked over at Yao incredulously, "Doing what? Retrieving my stolen mate?"

"No idiot. Saving people in general."

"Oh," said Alfred, returning his attention to the asylum worker in front of him.

We were all led to a small room that looked unremarkable. All it seemed to be was an office with a closet on the one side.

However when the 'closet' was opened up, it was revealed to be a staircase leading down, a draft of cool and damp air coming up and brushing against my cheek. Instantly I felt a deep sense of foreboding.

The stairs were solid but covered in very worn greying tiles. The fluorescent lights above were flickering and buzzing faintly and all else had been eerily silent. I shivered.

We were led to a long hall that ended, with a hallway on the left and right. There was, however, a door that Yao decided to open. The assistant was with us at that point so that he wouldn't run off and call for backup. He claimed to have no idea what was where in the basement.

The room Yao opened was large, and full of alphas. 

As soon as I got a good glimpse of the room, I had to keep my breathing slow and calm so that I wouldn't throw up once more. 

There were cots lining one side of the large room, and each one had an alpha laying on them. The men and women were all gaunt and so thin that you could see the bones of the ribs and every bump of their spines. The surfaces of their skin were covered with cuts and bruises. 

What was more was that the poor alphas were chained up to the wall near their bed, a bucket being their only source of toilet.

If that was what the alphas were going through, I dreaded seeing what had become of the omegas. Many of those who share my orientation are soft and kind. They do not like to fight and are not built for it. As much as I absolutely loathe to say it, those sorts of omegas were built for the more gentle pursuits in life. 

Darling Matthew, while having a thick skin and sometimes having a viper's tongue, was generally one of the sweetest omegas that you would ever meet. We'd lived all of our lives in a town with very little crime. Until not long before, our parents had been nothing but wonderful to us all. Matthew, to my recollection, hadn't experienced bullying beyond some simple harsh words every now and again. 

I shuddered to think of what had become of my friend, and the icy glaze over Alfred's face told me that he likely felt even worse than I did. Of course, since they were mates. 

“Xiao Mei, my love,” cried Chung Lien, running and collapsing at the side of a woman's cot. Her hands ran over the length of her lover's body, tears building up in her eyes.

Xiao Mei's skin was a sickly grey and her eyelids were drooped but still open showing their dull and lifeless gaze. The muscles in her body were all stiff, I could tell even from where I stood. 

“Look at me,” cried Chung Lien, shaking her partner's shoulders, tears spilling down her cheeks, “Look at me!”

Yao looked back at his cousin and I could see the sympathy in his eyes, but he knew that they didn't have time to stand around. There were living alphas to set free while they still had time. Yao would use the bolt cutters that he's brought in and cut the chains while the rest of us would sit the alphas up and tell them what was going on.

Francis, meanwhile, took it upon himself to comfort Chung Lien. He knelt beside her and draped an arm over her shoulder. He didn't speak because there had been no words that one could say over the death of a mate. Nothing to do but let the bereaved know that they were not alone. 

At one point, it all seemed to hit the female alpha and she tilted her head back and let loose a bellowing wail, hands clenched tight on her oar. 

Yao snapped the chains on Xiao Mei last and, in as soft a voice as the somewhat abrasive alpha could manage, said, “You can take her, we can bury her.”

Chung Lien shook her head, “No. She would have not wanted me to do that. She would have wanted me to save my energy to focus on freeing the rest of the people here. Not everybody here has a mate freeing them.”

She said those last words softly, so as not to upset the alphas whose mates were not around. Her voice was low and hallow and tears still flowed down her cheeks.

“If nobody needs my help, we can come back for her body,” said the alpha, bending down and placing a kiss to her dead mate's forehead and whispering words in a language that I didn't understand.

It was then, after looking around, that I realized that Alfred was gone. 

“Shit,” I said, drawing Francis' attention.

“Quoi?”

“Where the bloody hell did Alfred make off to?”

One of the feeble alpha's that we'd freed pointed to the door, “The only one that left that room was a tall blue eyed blond. Was that the Alfred you are talking about?”

Moving as a group was the safest option for us, so we went slow, at first. The alphas were getting used to being up on their feet for lengthy periods of time, so weren't very fast. Thankfully there didn't seem to be many others guards around as we'd...done away with many of them upstairs. 

A few more turns were made before we got to another room that had it's door opened wide. 

As soon as Yao was in sight, a giant, and I mean enormous, silver haired omega bound out of the room. He had a large nose and bright violet eyes. The omega wrapped his massive, tree trunk-like arms around Yao and picked up the small Chinese alpha as if he weighed next to nothing.

“Yao, my fierce tiger, you've come to save me da?” said the omega, with a voice that was significantly softer than I imagined it would be. 

I took a step back and bumped into Francis, who gripped my upper arm, and we both stared in a somewhat worried fascination at the scene unfolding before us. 

“Ivan,” said Yao, wrapping his arms around his mate and pressing soft kisses to his face between words, “If it hadn't been so long since I've last seen you, I'd tell you to put me down.”

Ivan simply snuggled into Yao's neck and I heard his deep inhale from where I stood. 

Emil flicked his own silver hair out of his face as he walked around us and peeked into the room.

“Xiao? A-are you here?” said Emil, voice shaking with what I assumed was worry.

Not that I blamed him one iota. His mate could have been dead like that poor female alpha back in the other room. God, just thinking about made my skin feel chill.

With Yao preoccupied, we all followed Emil into the room. What we saw stunned us. 

All of the omegas were unchained, which was different than the alphas room, but made sense when I thought about it. They were all huddled in a corner of the room, clinging to each other in fear and staring out at us with teary eyes. 

Yet as soon as the various omegas in the huddled pile saw their mates, they rushed forward. A brunet, smaller than myself, but the same size as Emil, slipped gently into his mate's arms. He was also but mere skin and bones, though I could only really tell from his exposed legs, the man's upper half was shrouded by a baggy top.

The man looked into Emil's eyes and said, “I was so scared when that enraged blond alpha burst into our room. He, like, flipped his lid when we told him that they'd taken our new friend Matthew for experiments. Ivan wasn't scared though. He just waited by the open door.”

When I heard those words, the blood seemed to stop flowing to my face, cooling it and I felt ever so slightly dazed. I couldn't even think about being upset at Alfred for terrifying a room full of frail omegas. All I could think of was poor Matthew. 

Slowly and cautiously I approached the embracing couple, “Excuse me, but where would Matthew have been taken?”

Emil looked over at me none too pleased, presumably because it was my friend who'd gone off his rocker and scared his mate. However the man in his arms looked at me and said, “Room 14A. It's-”

The man buried his face into the folds of Emil's shirt and sobbed, unable to finish his sentence, and allowed his hair to be stroked gently.

Yao, who'd somehow disentangled himself from his burly mate, went to us. Ivan was following right behind him, nearly an inch away from his back and smiling in a way that I found entirely disconcerting.

“I will come with you to help. If necessary, Ivan is strong enough to restrain Alfred if he is truly on a rampage like Ivan has just told me,” said Yao.

Now, that the alphas and the omegas were all in the same room, being left with some weapons to help defend themselves, just the four of us went to find Alfred. 

I honest didn't know what I had expected to find. Really, I had never seen the true wrath of an alpha protecting his mate. The day and age in which we lived saw most of us repressing our primal, animal instincts.

So what I saw shocked me to the core. 

As soon at the door of 14A was opened, the thick cloud of coppery blood stench wafted out as well as a thin rivulet of crimson liquid dribbling into the hall. 

If I hadn't previously thrown up every bit of food in my stomach before, I would have done so again. All I could do was fight back dry heaves at what I saw.

Utter carnage filled the room that was coated in splashes of red. The walls were thick and padded, as if they were sound proofed. There were, I was fairly certain, three bodies. Each of them were covered in stab wounds and drenched in their own blood. There were so many stabs and slashes in some parts that I could see the muscle and bone underneath.

Then there was Alfred, covered head to toe in blood. I edged closer to him, fighting back the urge to gag on the thick reek of iron. The more of him that I could see, the more I knew that most of the blood was not his own. Cradled in his arms, however, was Matthew, who was limp against Alfred.

The omega's red smeared flesh was mottled with discolourations underneath. One of his arms was bent the wrong way and was swollen in spots. There were methodical and precise slashes over his body that looked as if they weren't made by an enraged alpha, but somebody else. His entire body was thin but not to the degree of the rest of the facility. 

As soon as I was spotted, Alfred let loose a deep and feral growl. I wondered if he even knew that it was me. I saw, in one of Alfred's hands was a scalpel that I could only imagine had been used to kill the doctors on the floor. 

“Alfred, it's me, Artie,” I said using his nickname for me in hopes of getting through his cloud of frenzy.

Once more, all he could do was snarl and drew Matthew's limp body closer to himself. 

Francis chimed in, “I'm here as well mon ami. We won't hurt you.”

Alfred didn't make a noise but just stared down at Matthew and ran his blood sticky hand through those pale locks of blond hair. 

From the doorway was a small cough and the clearing of a throat. It was the assistant we'd held hostage. We had all but forgotten about him in our desperation to get everybody freed. 

He looked faintly green and like he wanted to throw up as well, perhaps he already had. Yet he stepped into the room and said, “Would you like me to look him over?”

Yao glared at the assistant and said, “Why didn't you run to get help? Why did you come after us instead?”

The small man shrugged and said, “I-I didn't know things down here were so bad. I g-guess I feel guilty.”

We all glared at the asylum worker while Alfred still rocked his mate in his arms, seeming to be wary of everybody and unaware of what was going on.

“I may not be a full fledged doctor,” said the assistant, moving up beside me and looking at Alfred, “But I know enough to help.”

Yao said, “We have a couple of doctors waiting for us in a secret location but we could use some help in the mean time.”

Exchanging glances with Francis, I made the decision, “Okay. Well let me get through to Alfred first and get the scalpel away from him.”

I got closer, despite a throaty noise of protest from Francis and knelt right before Alfred, “Hey. Would you like somebody to check Matthew out, help him?”

Hesitantly I placed my hand on Alfred's, the one which held the sharp object, and tried to give him a wobbly smile. 

He blinked and said, “I don't wanna let him go.”

His voice was so quiet and raspy, as if he'd been screaming as loud as he could. 

“You don't have to. Just give me the weapon so this man here can look Matthew over,” I said, gesturing to the man I was speaking of. 

Alfred let out a rumbling growl and his alpha fangs were bared, having already dropped at some point during his rampage.

“We will be here to help you protect him in case anything happens,” assured Francis and pointed to Yao and a distinctly uncomfortable looking Ivan, who was shuffling from foot to foot as if he really wanted to bolt but stayed by Yao anyway.

Of course, the room reeked of Alfred's pheromones as well as the blood. Perhaps all of the travelling with him the past week, Alfred being so frantic and unable to control his scent, had given me a sort of immunity as an omega. I hated being amongst the carnage, but the scent wasn't bugging me.

Alfred said, “Okay but I'm not putting him down.”

Edging close once I removed the sharp object from Alfred's grasp, the assistant gently probed at Matthew. He'd put on gloves that he'd had in a pocket of his jacket. 

“He's breathing and his pulse is normal. His wounds need to be treated but are mostly not bleeding. There are a multitude of scars over his body that are in varying states of healing. Most concerning is his arm, which will need to be set,” said the assistant, “I am unable to tell you the state of his internal organs but I think he will eventually heal with lots of care and rest.”

The man got up and began to rummage through some cabinets. When asked what he was doing, he muttered, “Supplies.”

Putting down a clean tray, the man got out some makeshift materials for a sling. He put the arm in a position, Matthew only flinching but still utterly out of it. 

We convinced Alfred to agree to move, which he only did if he didn't have to let Matthew go. I saw in his eyes that he was on the edge of madness and close to snapping once more. We all treated him with a velvet touch.

Leaving the place was easier than I thought, most of the nurses hidden away. I was all to happy to move on from the place to question it. 

Except that when we left through the front door, we heard words that froze me to the spot.

“Oi! Put yer hands up!” demanded a loud and booming voice of a man who was pointing a shotgun at us.

He was a tall brunet with a bandage over his nose. Beside him was a man with blond hair curled at the sides of his head, also armed with a shotgun. Outside of the gate was their squad car.

Yao said a number of explosive words in Chinese and I only assumed that they were curses. We had pistols and some us had them out. The police officers, however, had much stronger weapons and were aiming right at us. Shooting was a huge gamble for all we'd just worked for.

“You heard 'im, put yer hands up,” said the blond man.

That was when enough of us all came into the few lights that had been turned on around the fenced in area. The cops paled.

“Holy fuck, Kiwi, do ya see that?” said the brunet whose voice I recognized as Australian.

The blond nodded. Neither of the officers lowered their weapons but I imagined that they appeared less hostile.

“What was happening here? Why does everybody look like that?” said the blond cop, “We got a call that this place was being attacked.”

Yao's shoulders were tensed and hunched as if he were about to pounce. Alfred was snarling and clutching desperately at Matthew. Some of the freed omegas burst into tears and even some of the alphas trembled. Chung Lien held the body of her dead mate. 

I breathed out and then said, “We were freeing mates who had been stolen. This asylum did this. They've tortured our mates and friends. We did what we needed to do to free them.”

After a moment of two, the Australian lowered his shotgun but still kept a hold of it. He gestured for his partner to do that same. They went to us, circling us and giving us a good look over. 

The blond, 'Kiwi', asked, “Is this true? I'd heard rumours of people being sent here and never coming out but I thought it was just local gossip.”

Yao, who'd regained control of himself thanks to Ivan's hands rubbing his shoulders, said, “Yes. It's true. We've worked for months to free our mates. Yes we killed some of the guards but we did what we had to and we'd do it again.”

Chung Lien stepped up to them, tears still making her cheeks wet and a look of absolute agony on her face, “We were all in this position because the mates that fate chose for us were deemed illegal or immoral. They took her and killed her after, what I can assume based on how she looks, months of torture. If your mate had been in this position, what would you have done?”

The blond and the brunet, at that point, looked at each other. I smelled that they were both alphas and I wondered how they hadn't been caught. The Australian swore and said, “Get going, Go as fast as you can. Backup was called from the next county so you have at least fifteen more minutes of head start. I'll say that we didn't see which direction you went.”

As we ran past them, we all gave the officers our thanks and hoped that they stayed safe. 

Then, into the pitch dark forest, we all disappeared into the night.

~ = = Present = = ~

Arthur read over the last words that he'd typed up and took a sip of his earl grey. 

That had been harder than he'd thought it would be, writing that all out. What had happened to him in that asylum, even though he hadn't been tortured, had been one of the most traumatic in his life. It had taken months, years even to fully get over the horrors that he'd seen and the things that he'd done. 

To this day, he didn't like to think of himself as a murderer, even though he'd taken a life. Sometimes, to this day, he'd wake up drenched in sweat and screaming. Francis would hold him until he came back to reality.

Some things just didn't ever fully leave you.

It had been worth it though. Arthur smiled over at Matthew.

Even though the situation was far from ideal, Alfred still in a coma from a heart attack, the twins had a far longer life than they would have had if Matthew had stayed in the asylum. They'd had a life together and been quite happy for many, many years.

Of course, Arthur wanted his friend to pull through and would be very upset were he to pass. 

Matthew was sleeping in a chair beside Alfred's bed, leaning his head onto the mattress, snoring lightly.

Arthur grabbed one of the handmade thrown blankets that he'd brought from home and draped it over the omega's shoulders. Then he went out of the room.

He found Francis waiting outside, smoking a cigarette.

“I thought you'd quit,” said Arthur, wrapping his arms around his mate.

Francis blew the grey smoke away from Arthur and said, “I had. You know how I get under stress.”

Arthur pressed a gentle kiss to Francis' cheek and ran his nose down over that stubble that was mostly white now. 

“What do you say we go home for a little while,” said Arthur, his voice low and breathy.

“Shouldn't we stay here for Matthew?” asked Francis.

Standing in front of Francis by then and placing his hands on Francis' hips, Arthur said, “We'll come back later. I just need you right now. I need you to hold me.”

He met his lover's eyes and tried his hardest to convey his deep need after all that he'd just recalled in writing the past. 

Francis nodded and smiled, “Alright mon amour. Je t'aime.”

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. The very day that I wrote Taiwan as being dead in this, I started seeing pictures of her suddenly crop up all over my Tumblr feed. It's like she was trying to haunt me for killing her off >_


End file.
